Nearly half of all lieutenant governors are women. Could the future of the governor's office be female?

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We start in Minnesota, where the prospect of the state having its first woman in the governor’s office has suddenly become very real. If Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan moves up, she would also be the first Native American governor of the state.

Those possibilities reflect a recent shift in state capitols where women—and specifically women of color—are more frequently in positions of power, especially when it comes to the office of lieutenant governor.

“The increase of women of color in lieutenant governor positions yields opportunity,” said Kelly Dittmar, a Rutgers University political science professor and director of research for the Center for American Women and Politics. “We don’t know the outcome, but it increases the opportunity for women of color to go on to run for governor. They have that credential, access to voters, name recognition and donors behind them. Or they can be poised for succession.”

Those advantages could be significant, because the country has elected very few women or people of color as governor. The 12 women serving as governors right now is the highest number on record.

Only three women of color have ever served as governor—Susana Martinez and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, who are both Hispanic, and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who is Indian American.

But 19 women of color have served as lieutenant governor, and eight of them are currently in office.

A Potential Minnesota Milestone

When Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the November election, it also focused attention on Flanagan, who would take Walz’s place if he becomes vice president.

Minnesota is one of 18 states that has never had a woman governor, so Flanagan would be the first. (It’s worth noting that Flanagan is the latest in a long line of Minnesota women ready to assume power if the governor’s office becomes vacant. She is the ninth consecutive woman serving as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor; the last time a man held the office was in January 1983.)

As a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Flanagan would also become the first Native American governor of Minnesota and the first female Native governor in the country. In fact, when Walz chose Flanagan as his running mate, they made the official announcement at the American Indian Center in Minneapolis.

But it was Flanagan who helped Walz learn the ropes of electoral politics. She had just won election as a Minneapolis school board member when Walz attended a training she taught on how to elect Democrats. Walz had his eyes on a congressional seat, which he ultimately won before moving onto the governor’s office.

A Diverse Bench 

Women currently serve as lieutenant governors in 22 of the 45 states that have the position, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. That’s by far the most popular executive position for women. By comparison, women are serving as governor in 12 states, as attorney general in 12 states and as secretary of state in 12 states.

Three current women governors—Kay Ivey of Alabama, Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Kathy Hochul of New York—served as lieutenant governors and became the chief executive when their predecessors resigned. Of the 49 women governors in the country’s history, 14 of them first served in the No. 2 spot.

But the vast majority of the women of color serving as lieutenant governor have come in the last decade. Jean King of Hawaii, whose mother was Japanese, became the first woman of color to hold the No. 2 spot in a state in 1978. Only three other women of color became lieutenant governor before 2015. Since then, 15 have.

Dittmar says the shift reflects many changes in society, including a growing push among voters and party officials to see women in power.

“We have a record number of women serving as governor since 2022. They’re still underrepresented at 12 of 50, but we went from a record of nine to 12,” Dittmar said. “And then Harris at the top of the ticket is important, because on a broader scale that normalizes women—and, in this case a woman of color—at executive leadership at the highest level. Absolutely, those things have an effect … It disrupts our thinking about who can and should run for those offices.”

The effect can be seen in state legislatures, too, where women now make up nearly a third of lawmakers, the highest level on record. For all statewide executive offices, women make up nearly 32% of incumbents.

The unsuccessful presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the #MeToo movement that brought attention to sexual harassment in 2017 also galvanized women to organize and pursue leadership positions. Even though Clinton didn’t win the race, the fact that she took the popular vote against Donald Trump dispelled the notion that voters wouldn’t pick a woman for executive roles, Dittmar said.

“The fact that she didn’t win the actual office against Trump also created not only a sense of urgency among women… it also spurred a gender reckoning,” Dittmar said. It showed “when we don’t have women in significant positions of power—whether they be in politics or other fields—that yields bad and toxic results.”

That backlash helped bolster women candidates in 2018, especially among Democrats. “There was a public that was demanding it more from party leaders, so you saw party leaders—even white men—saying electorally it would be smart to run a woman, and the women themselves leveraged that,” Dittmar said.

A similar shift in Democratic circles occurred following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, she said. “There was an increased demand for something different and new, including along gender and racial lines,” Dittmar said. “They were saying they wanted to see more people that share our experience in these positions.”

Of course, it was in those conditions that President Joe Biden picked Harris as his running mate. Four years later, Harris’ rise could also give Minnesota its first woman governor.

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News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

Elections
Secretaries of state urge Elon Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info. The elected officials from five U.S. states urged the billionaire on Monday in an open letter to fix social media platform X's AI chatbot, saying it had spread misinformation related to the Nov. 5 election. Within hours of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he was suspending his presidential campaign on July 21, “false information on ballot deadlines produced by the chatbot Grok was shared on multiple social media platforms,” the secretaries wrote. The letter was spearheaded by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by his counterparts in Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington state.

Housing
Massachusetts governor signs $5B housing bill, “most ambitious” in state history. Gov. Maura Healey’s signing of the bill on Tuesday paves the way for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of more than 65,000 homes across Massachusetts over the next five years. The legislation is the largest housing bond bill ever filed in the state, more than tripling the spending authorizations of the last housing bill passed in 2018. It is comprised of 49 policy initiatives that permit accessory dwelling units, modernize the state’s public housing system, enhance programs that assist first-time homebuyers and promote homeownership, provide incentives to build more housing for low- to moderate-income residents, support the conversion of vacant commercial spaces into housing, and promote sustainable and green housing initiatives.

Guns
Maryland ban on assault-style weapons upheld by U.S. appeals court. The state can prohibit AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled Tuesday, bolstering gun control efforts across the country under legal threat following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The majority ruling repeatedly cited the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court upheld a Second Amendment right to possess a firearm at home for self-defense. That ruling also held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee “a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose” and weapons with firepower far exceeding the needs of self-defense “may be banned.” The ruling is expected to be appealed to the high court. Meanwhile, a Maine law requiring a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases went into effect Friday.

Immigration
Texas public hospitals will be required to collect patients’ immigration status. Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order on Thursday that requires public health providers starting Nov. 1 to check the immigration status of patients so that the hospitals can then track costs incurred for the care of undocumented migrants. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission will in turn collect the information from hospitals so that the state can bill the federal government. Meanwhile, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of 15 states in an attempt to stop President Joe Biden from expanding health care access to “Dreamers” by making them eligible to participate in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.

Homelessness
Denver to expand navigation centers to help the homeless amid worsening crisis. Navigation centers—a one-stop shop for people without a home who need a myriad of resources and services to regain a stable place in life—are set to expand across metro Denver, where homelessness exploded by 48.5% from 2020 to 2023. No fewer than three new centers are slated for launch in the next year or so. The centers, modeled after a successful one in Houston, typically have beds for overnight stays, offer three meals a day, and have on hand medical and mental health professionals, addiction counselors and workforce specialists. The effort comes after the Colorado Department of Local Affairs last fall unleashed $52 million in grants toward the development of “regional navigation campuses” in and around Denver.

Public Safety
Wisconsin firefighters say they don’t have funds to respond to all calls. Half of Wisconsin’s fire chiefs said they don’t have the financial resources to cover their budgets. And more than 10% of the state’s fire departments had at least one instance over the last year where a service call was not responded to, according to a recent survey. Increasing call volumes, difficulty recruiting and funding shortfalls were the most common reasons given by respondents. Some believe special purpose fire districts could be a solution. Colorado, Illinois and Indiana use them. Meanwhile, despite a sweeping, bipartisan revenue-sharing agreement passed last year to send more money to local governments, many Wisconsin municipalities are still facing budget challenges. 

Social Services
Study finds city-owned grocery store in Chicago is “necessary” and “feasible.” Nearly a year after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration floated the possibility of opening a municipally owned grocery store to help improve food access on the South and West sides, a feasibility study created for the city describes a municipal grocery model as “necessary, feasible and implementable.” The study finds such stores could even turn a profit, and suggests the city not attempt to operate a supermarket itself, but rather partner with a for-profit operator, a nonprofit operator or a co-op. If Chicago successfully opens a grocery store, it would be the first big U.S. city to do so, although Atlanta is looking into the approach. Several smaller municipalities have tried their hand at public stores.

DEI
Colorado school districts turn to data to find gifted students from all backgrounds. About a decade after schools in Colorado started using universal testing to identify students who are gifted, white students and those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds still make up the vast majority of students in gifted programs. So educators are taking new steps to make sure students who have long been underrepresented, including students of color, English language learners, and those from lower income families, are better represented. Districts and organizations are now focusing on new data analysis, looking at multiple tests and training teachers to identify behaviors that might signal high abilities among students of different cultures.

Health Care
Free diaper initiative begins in Tennessee. The Volunteer state is now the first in the nation to help families cover the cost of diapers. Starting this week, those under two and covered under the Tennessee’s Medicaid programs, TennCare and CoverKids, will be eligible to receive up to 100 free diapers per month. The benefit was introduced by Gov. Bill Lee back in January of 2023, as a “pro-life” and “pro-family” way to use the $330 million in savings from the state’s new Medicaid block grant funding structure.

Economic Development
Zombie pharmacies are holding back New York City retail. Here’s why. The city is littered with vacant big-box pharmacies. Since the first quarter of 2020, before the pandemic, 222 big-box pharmacies have closed in New York City, and 138 stores were still vacant in July. Why? The most common reason is a concept called “dark rent.” Most of the pharmacies that have closed in recent years were signed to 10-, 15- or even 20-year leases, at rents that often exceed today’s rates. In these cases, a landlord has almost no incentive to seek a new tenant, allowing the store to sit empty for months or years. But the city is hoping that recent zoning changes that allow for new uses like child care centers, microbreweries and arcades could help.

Picture of the Week

Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys. Good Samaritan discovered the drugs & contacted authorities. U.S. Border Patrol seized the drugs, which have a street value of over $1 million dollars.#Hurricane #Debby #Florida #floridakeys pic.twitter.com/nsjKu6qm8V

— Samuel Briggs II (@USBPChiefMIP) August 5, 2024

Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour, downed trees, submerged streets and drenched neighborhoods across Florida this week. The state Department of Transportation reported clearing “nearly 6,600 miles of state roads and interstates from downed trees and other storm debris in less than 24 hours.” But it was another product of the strong winds that garnered headlines. Debby also blew 25 blocks of cocaine worth about $1 million onto a beach on the Florida Keys, according to Samuel Briggs II, the acting chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Miami. The drugs were discovered by a “good Samaritan,” who alerted the authorities.

Government in Numbers

50%

The percentage of the under-5 population that several counties are on pace to lose in 20 years. An article in The Atlantic this week reported that in large urban metros, the number of children under 5 years old is in a free fall. From 2020 to 2023, the number of these young kids declined by nearly 20% in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. They also fell by double-digit percentage points in the counties making up most or all of Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and St. Louis. The urban exodus worries observers about a possible “family-exodus doom loop. … When the population of young kids in a city falls 10 or 20% in just a few years, that’s a potential political earthquake. Almost overnight, there are fewer parents around to fight for better schools, local playgrounds, or all the other mundane amenities families care about,” Connor O’Brien, a policy analyst at the think tank Economic Innovation Group, told the publication.