“What I have said for years is, don’t sleep on lieutenant governors,” Minnesota LG Peggy Flanagan said, “and don’t sleep on the second-in-command.”
ICYMI, Democratic LGs, the most diverse group of statewide elected officials, is on the cusp of a moment as Vice President Kamala Harris sits at the top of the ticket and chooses her running mate.
Read below excerpts from NOTUS’s story:
Harris is taking over the presidential campaign after President Joe Biden stepped away, and she will soon make history as the country’s first Black and South Asian woman major party nominee, a second-in-command whose rise could give a boost to another historic first in a state across the country.
“That one movement from President Biden opened up the door for something that many of us weren’t sure we’d see in our lifetimes,” said Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
“That sort of domino effect means there’s lots of movement that might take place that could affect a lot of different levels,” Stratton said of Harris taking over as likely nominee.
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“We share all of us, similar roles, a similar struggle,” Davis said. “There’s not a lot of other people outside lieutenant governors who recognize what we go through on a day-to-day basis, on what we have to balance and juggle and recognize what goes into stepping up if you’re called upon.”
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Stratton, Flanagan and Davis are just three of the 25 Democrats currently serving as a lieutenant governor, 22 in states and three in U.S. territories, according to DLGA figures. Eighty percent are women or people of color, making them vastly more diverse than just about any other group of elected officials one can assemble in America. (According to stats kept by the Eagleton Center on The American Governor, 12 serving governors are women and just four are not white.)
So, in addition to the talk about who might get called up to governor, the Democratic LGs also have a shared perspective on how race is used in politics that their fellow second-in-command, Harris, now finds herself in the middle of. In just one interview this week, former President Donald Trump questioned Harris’ identity and struggled to defend his own would-be second-in-command, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who once said Harris was among the group of liberal “childless cat ladies” he says have too much power.
For the group of LGs who represent America’s diversity and possibly its political future, what Harris is going through feels personal to them.
“I really feel deeply connected to her,” Flanagan said. “I know what it’s like to be the first, and so many of us who are lieutenant governors know what it’s like to be a first.”
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The DLGA was planning to boost the profile of the Democratic LGs long before the VP frenzy took hold. The group is relatively new, reconstituting in 2018 after years of no national infrastructure supporting the nation’s Democratic seconds-in-command. Executive Director Kevin Holst pointed NOTUS to the group’s recent commitment to spend $1 million backing the gubernatorial primary campaign of Delaware’s LG, Bethany Hall-Long.
LGs have emerged as regular presidential surrogates this year, sometimes rallying crowds far away from the states they serve. Holst says he works for the bench of the party — the people who will be president, senator or governor soon. Maybe some sooner than others.
Read the entire story HERE.
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