Lt. Minnesota Governor Peggy Flanagan begins to open up about her dark past.
The 45-year-old, who could become the state’s first female governor if Tim Walz is elected vice president, recently opened up about how she witnessed her then-stepfather abuse her mother from the age of about 10.
“My mother stayed because she wanted me to be able to go to college,” Flanagan said during a recent visit to the Cornerstone Advocacy Center for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. reports the Minnesota Star Tribune.
She said she didn’t realize that domestic violence wasn’t normal until she went to college and discovered that other kids didn’t grow up that way.
“Most people don’t call home and ask if I should come home after school, or if I should go to my best friend Lauren’s house,” Flanagan said.
Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan has spoken out about the domestic violence she witnessed as a child
Flanagan (pictured with her husband) could become the state’s first female governor if Tim Walz is elected vice president
But for years Flanagan felt uncomfortable talking about what she endured, even as she connected with voters about other aspects of her personal life, such as discussing what it was like growing up with a single mother in St. .Louis Park. who were dependent on public programs.
That began to change in 2009, when she went to Washington, D.C., with the progressive training group Wellstone Action to see then-Vice President Joe Biden receive an award from the Sheila Wellstone Institute for his advocacy for victims of domestic violence.
There, Flanagan said she felt compelled to tell Biden about the abuse she witnessed as a child.
“I just started crying and the vice president stood up and gave me a hug. I literally cried into his chest,” the lieutenant governor told the Star Tribune.
“And he said, ‘If you can tell that story to the vice president, I bet you can tell that story to other people.’”
In the years since, Flanagan has come to call herself a “domestic violence survivor and child witness,” without going into details about what she experienced.
She said that from the age of 10, she witnessed her then-stepfather abuse her mother
David Wellstone, who was with Flanagan on the 2009 trip, said that when the lieutenant governor now shares her story with others, “it gives permission” for others to open up.
“There’s so much stigma around this issue, and there can be so much shame,” he said.
“When someone as powerful as she is and everything she has accomplished can talk about it, it brings a whole new level of hope and the opportunity for people to tell their stories.”
Cornerstone employees, including executive director Artika Roller, also said they heard Flanagan speak about her past at an action meeting among advocates and survivors.
“To me, it gives hope that people can not only overcome traumatic situations, but also excel and thrive,” Roller said.
Flanagan said she is now a “cycle breaker” and is raising her daughter that way
Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation, said she also wants young women — especially young Native American women — to know that “we can take up space and we have value.
“We need to talk about it,” said Flanagan, mother of a sixth-grade girl.
“I’m a cycle breaker and I’m raising a cycle breaker,” she said.
She also noted that the last time she saw Biden, he remembered their conversation from more than a decade ago.
“Flanagan,” he reportedly told her, “I bet you saved a lot of lives.”