Kevin Abourezk
ICT

Newly elected Minnesota U.S. Sen. Peggy Flanagan, the first Native woman to serve in the upper chamber, said Wednesday that she looks forward to restoring Medicaid funding cuts, ending the Iran War and ensuring Indigenous people have quality healthcare as promised to them by the federal government.

“I am running on caffeine and adrenaline and tremendous amounts of gratitude to the people of Minnesota,” she said Wednesday during a virtual press conference. “I think we had a tremendous result last night in Minnesota but also all across the country.”

“I am thrilled that my sister Deb Haaland was elected governor of New Mexico last night,” she said, noting that Haaland, Pueblo of Laguna, is the first Native woman elected governor of a state. “I’m just very hopeful about the future as we head into 2027: holding the Trump administration accountable and also working hard to make sure that people can afford the lives they want to live. … I am honored and so very humbled to be the first Native American woman elected to the United States Senate.”

Flanagan – an Anishinaabe Kwe or Ojibwe woman – said her first priority would be to restore Medicaid funding that President Donald Trump’s administration cut, as well as banning prior authorization, which is a practice employed by many insurance companies in which they require customers to get permission before getting healthcare procedures done or risk not having those procedures covered. Flanagan said she also supports Medicare for all.

She said ending the war in Iran will be a priority and working to reduce the rising cost of gasoline, a problem she attributes to the war. She offered stern words about the Trump administration’s decision to send thousands of ICE agents into Minnesota earlier this year.

“We have been impacted so deeply here in Minnesota by the chaos, the terrorization, the scooping people up simply based on the color of their skin, including members of the Native community here in Minnesota, and the fact that they’ve been allowed to kill two Minnesotans with zero accountability whatsoever,” she said. “I think that is the message that I will be bringing to Washington, D.C. – that people want accountability.”

Flanagan said she was honored to see Michael Fairbanks, chairman of the White Earth Nation of which she is a citizen, and a drum group perform an honoring song for her prior to her victory speech Tuesday night.

“I absolutely understand the responsibility that I have as an Anishinaabe Kwe, as a member of the United States Senate, to ensure that we are working to make sure that the federal government upholds treaty rights and trust responsibilities, and frankly, that should be the floor,” she said.

“The significance of this moment is not lost on me, and I’m really hopeful for what we can do.”

She said she also looks forward to working with Wab Kinew, premier of Manitoba and Canada’s first First Nations provincial premier, to renew ties with Canada following the political turmoil that she said Trump’s tariffs and aggressive rhetoric have caused.

Kinew congratulated Flanagan on her win early Wednesday morning in a social media post:

“Congratulations MN Senator-Elect Peggy Flanagan and all the Democrats for absolutely dominating Trump in the midterms! I look forward to working together to lower costs on both sides of the border by ending the war in Iran (gas & diesel prices) and the Trump tariffs (the price of everything else).”

“The American people have delivered a resounding rejection of the President’s actions over the past two years,” Kinew wrote. “Canadians are ready to rebuild the relationship and strengthen our economies.”

Flanagan said she’s hopeful that her win would inspire other future Native leaders who can now see the possibility of fulfilling their own political ambitions.

“Although it took 250 years for a native woman to become a United States senator, I certainly know that the next Native woman … elected to the US Senate, it will happen much faster,” she said. “We won’t have to wait for 250 years, and it gives me a lot of hope.”

Looking forward, she said she plans to seek a seat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and will work to ensure the Indian Health Service is fully funded, and she offered some words of comfort for Mary Peltola, who is Yupʼik and the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska, whose tight race with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, has yet to be called.

“The election night in Alaska lasts a little bit longer than it does in other states,” Flanagan said, referring to the challenges in counting votes in Alaska, where rural villages, including many Native villages, struggle to transport ballots, often by airplane, to the state capital of Juneau. “I know that she has run a really strong campaign and I look forward to that outcome, and I’m excited about the possibility of having two Indigenous women serving in the U.S. Senate together.”

She encouraged Native people all over the country to celebrate her win with her in whatever way they choose, and she thanked the many Indigenous women who have supported her throughout her life and political career.

“I would encourage all the aunties to wear your biggest earrings possible today,” she said. “Everyone should feel like they are a part of this. I exist because of the love and support of the Native community here in Minnesota, and I’d say even more specifically, the urban Native community here, and yeah, rock your ribbon skirt. Wear your big earrings. Let out your loudest lili and let’s go.”

The post ‘Wear your big earrings. Let out your loudest lili and let’s go’ appeared first on ICT.

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