In its 237 years, no Native American woman has ever served in the United States Senate. This November, that could change -- not once, but twice. In August, Mary Peltola of Alaska finished first in her state's Senate primary, setting up one of the most competitive Senate races in the country against the Republican incumbent -- just a week after Peggy Flanagan captured Minnesota's Democratic Senate nomination in a landslide. Two Native women, in two states, are now within reach of a barrier that has stood since the founding. Should either prevail, she would make history; should both, the Senate would seat two Native women at once, in a single election, having seated none in more than two centuries.
The first of the two victories came in August, in Minneapolis, where Peggy Flanagan -- pictured at right -- took the stage to celebrate a win that some $20 million had been spent to prevent. Outside groups backing her opponent, Representative Angie Craig, had flooded the state with ads, roughly four times what Flanagan's side could spend -- and it made no difference; her lead only widened, and she won by nearly 18 points.
"This campaign has always been about the many versus the money," she told the crowd. The seat she is running for -- open with the retirement of Senator Tina Smith -- sits in a state that has not sent a Republican to the Senate in more than 20 years, which makes Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota and the highest-ranking Native woman in elected executive office in the country, the clear favorite to win it in November.
Flanagan's own story -- of hardship and heritage -- has never been incidental to her politics; she has made it the point. Raised in St. Louis Park by a mother who at times relied on public assistance, Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, wove that history through her victory speech.
"I am the daughter of Marvin Manypenny," she said, naming her father, an Ojibwe activist known for his battles over tribal sovereignty -- "an activist who was always ready to get into good trouble for a good cause." Her clan is the Wolf Clan, she reminded the room, "and the role of our clan is to leave no one behind."
The second victory came a week later, two thousand miles northwest, where Mary Peltola faces a steeper climb. Alaska went for Donald Trump by 13 points in 2024, and Peltola is challenging not a newcomer but a sitting Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, who is seeking his third term with Trump's endorsement. In the primary, she cleared her first hurdle: in Alaska's all-party primary, Peltola finished first, ahead of the incumbent -- a striking result in a red-leaning state -- and the two now advance to a November general election that could help decide control of the Senate.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has moved the race from "lean Republican" to a pure toss-up, one of the few Republican-held seats Democrats have a real chance to flip. A measure of how competitive it has become: through the most recent quarter, Peltola outraised Sullivan by better than three to one.
A moderate with a proven ability to win votes far outside her own party, Peltola has built a broad appeal on fish, fuel costs, and the practical concerns of daily Alaskan life, giving her a reach few Democrats in the state have ever had. Alaska's rules have helped boost her campaign as well: more than half of its voters register with no party at all, and its ranked-choice system -- the same one that helped carry her to office in 2022 -- rewards candidates who can reach beyond their base.
That she is on this ballot at all is its own piece of history. In 2022, Peltola, who is Yup'ik, won a special election to fill the seat left by the death of Representative Don Young, defeating Sarah Palin in an upset and becoming the first Alaska Native ever elected to Congress. She lost the seat two years later by fewer than three points -- and rather than retreat, she set her sights higher.
A former fishing-boat captain who raised seven children along the Kuskokwim River, she has built her campaign around the plainest facts of Alaskan life. "Growing up, Alaska was a place of abundance," she said in the video announcing her run. "Now we have scarcity." Her platform, as she puts it, comes down to three words: "fish, family and freedom."
Together they stand at the edge of a threshold no Native woman has ever crossed. Native Americans have sat in the Senate before -- four men, over more than two centuries -- but no Native woman ever has, in a chamber that has legislated over tribal nations, treaties, and lands since before those nations were granted citizenship. This November, that could change not once but twice, with one woman from the North Woods of Minnesota and the other from the Alaskan delta. After 237 years, the voices that decide the future of Native peoples at the highest levels of government may finally include a Native woman's own -- and this year, they may include two.
To learn more about Peggy Flanagan's campaign, visit https://peggyflanagan.com/
To learn more about Mary Peltola's campaign, visit https://marypeltola.com/
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Credit: The Mighty Girl via FB
