Minnesota Lt. Gov. Flanagan's Senate Campaign Claims Potential Historic First

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in the state, has seen her campaign's fundraising operation highlight the possibility of her becoming the first Native American woman to serve in the upper chamber of Congress.

"Friend, in almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the US Senate. It’s time to change that," read an email from the campaign following Flanagan's primary win. Flanagan, who identifies as Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation, is vying for a Senate seat in Minnesota.

This messaging has drawn attention and comparisons to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Warren faced scrutiny for claims of Cherokee ancestry that predated and followed her election in 2012.

In 1984, Warren contributed recipes to a Native American cookbook and identified herself as Cherokee. Two years later, she listed her ethnicity as "American Indian" on a survey for the State Bar of Texas. Between 1995 and 2004, Harvard Law School, where she was employed, listed her as Native American on federal affirmative action forms, a designation she stated she was unaware of.

Following Donald Trump's election in 2016, he frequently referred to Warren as "Pocahontas" and challenged her claims of Native American heritage. In 2018, Warren released a DNA test analysis from a Stanford University professor indicating a Native American ancestor between six and ten generations ago. However, some geneticists questioned the analysis's methodology and data limitations, suggesting it should have stated potential, rather than definitive, indigenous ancestry. The Cherokee Nation subsequently criticized Warren's use of the DNA test, calling it "inappropriate and wrong," prompting an apology from Warren in early 2019.

Historically, four men have served as Native American senators in the U.S.: Robert Owen (D-Okla.), Charles Curtis (R-Kan.), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who currently serves as Secretary of Homeland Security. As of now, no Native American woman has served in the U.S. Senate.