Transcripts

SPEAKER: Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan began their second year in office next week. The two have been friends for nearly 15 years after meeting at a training session, and back then, Flanagan was an elected office holder and Walz was not. Here's the story of how their unique partnership developed in their own words.

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TIM WALZ: I was-- let me get this right. So it would have been 2005 is when I started. So I would have been 41.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: I was 25 years old, and I was a trainer with Camp Wellstone

TIM WALZ: Never would have in a million years imagined that I would be in elected office. And some folks said, well, lucky for you, there's an organization that teaches people how to be activists, how to be candidates, and how to run campaigns.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: I had just won a seat on the Minneapolis school board in 2004.

TIM WALZ: And I remember there was this young school board member. It was pretty striking to me to see a young Indigenous woman that just commanded a sense of presence.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: This guy, this geography teacher walks in the room to Camp Wellstone in jeans and a T-shirt and tennis shoes.

TIM WALZ: I just remember there was a session on what it takes to run your first campaign and what it means to be an elected office.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: And during introductions said, I'm Tim Walz, and I want to run for Congress in the first Congressional District. And we're like, is he a Democrat? As a Democrat?

TIM WALZ: Now, even thinking, I'm glad I didn't know a lot of it because I probably would've never done it. It's just overwhelming.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: I mean, initially it was like, who is this guy? And at the end of the training, it was like, who is this guy? And we became friends, and I went and knocked on doors in the first Congressional District in Mankato for this guy named Tim Walz.

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TIM WALZ: When I went to talk to her, I told her, I'm running for governor, and I'm thinking about doing something that hasn't been done before. I'd like to build a team early and not go to the convention, but run as a partnership. And she said, wow, well, that's really interesting. Are there some names you're thinking about? I said, no, not really.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: And he said, well, there's only one name on that list. And I was like oh, who is it? And he's like, oh, it's you. And I was like, what? Yeah.

TIM WALZ: And we talked for a little while, and, of course she had a lot of decisions. It was a huge decision on her. She gave up a hard earned seat in the legislature-- single mom.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: The final conversation that we had was at the Jordan Supper Club on 169, which is halfway between Saint Louis Park and Mankato. We were there, and there was some kind of formal dance that was happening in the community of Jordan, because there were all these teenagers in semi-formal attire. And then we were in the middle of the room in jeans and T-shirts, eating hamburgers.

TIM WALZ: And then she smiled, and I said, so are we doing this? You have a 55-year-old rural white guy who was in the army and coached football, and you have 39-year-old Indigenous woman who lived in Saint Louis Park. That brings a wealth of way to approach these issues and how we discuss them. And I think it's a-- she challenges me. I think, I challenge her.

PEGGY FLANAGAN: If we left maybe a difficult event or something, that was just a challenging situation, and we'd get in the car and be like, aren't you glad that you signed on to the ticket? And so I think there are just moments of humor where, whoof, like, this is tough, and we're in it. We're in it together. Like, I got you.

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SPEAKER: That report was produced by our Briana Bierschbach.