Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
Tuesday’s general election will have the highest number of Indigenous candidates ever, according to a database by ICT and Advance Native Political Leadership.
There are 225 candidates running in 30 different states in total. The candidates represent nearly 100 different Indigenous nations that are state or federally-recognized in the United States, others are Indigenous communities from across borders.
Half of the candidates are running as Democrats on general election ballots. The next highest percentage, 39 percent, are candidates running on the ballots as nonpartisan or Independent. Only 23 of the 225 Indigenous candidates are running as Republicans. There is one Green Party candidate.
For Indian Country, all eyes are on New Mexico, where former Interior Secretary and U.S. House Rep. Deb Haaland is likely to become the first Native American woman elected as governor, anywhere in the country.
In the primary elections, there were 364 candidates running for 368 seats, four candidates ran for multiple seats. This is a nearly 400 percent increase in the number of Indigenous candidates running for federal, state and local offices compared to former ICT editor Mark Trahant’s 2016 database. It was later inherited and expanded by ICT in 2018.
Notably, there are six Indigenous candidates who identify as Two Spirit or non-binary. One being Alicia “Liish” Kozlowski, who made history in 2022 when they were elected as Minnesota’s first non-binary legislator. They’re looking to secure their third term representing Minnesota House District 8B.
Indigenous women are running at parity with Indigenous men. There are 121 Indigenous women running for office in these general elections, and 104 Indigenous men.
“The voice of authority is different when you have an Indigenous woman in the room because you’ve got tens of thousands of history of her ancestors sitting with her. In most governments, you got 250 years of some dude,” said Gwen Leaffe Carr, longtime political consultant who is Cayuga. “It is a totally different conversation that comes from a totally different place.”
Indigenous women are also more likely to win, according to Jordan James Harvill, senior national program director for Advance Native Political Leadership.
“Native women historically had ran for office at a slightly lower rate than Native men, but that trend reversed in the early 2020s, and we’ve seen, by and large, that Native women are starting to run at higher rates,” Harvill, Cherokee and Choctaw, said. “Despite them running at higher rates or not, they win at dramatically higher rates, and we’ve seen across the years, on average, about a 62 percent win rate for Native women who run.”
To add more context, most Native women are running in districts that don’t cross sovereign lands.
“They’re running on the edges of tribal lands and are really competitive districts, and they’re able to navigate those politics extraordinarily well,” Harvill said.
The outcomes of this election could also lead to more historic wins in the future, said Mark Trahant, a longtime political correspondent and former editor of ICT.
“Every senator thinks they’re on the next step to the White House. That just comes with the job when you’re one of a 100. It’s just automatic,” Trahant said. “Governors are where most presidents come from… Those (two) offices get national exposure. They get national money. I wouldn’t put it at all out of the question for any one of these three women to end up being on the ticket as a vice president.”
The three women Trahant referred to were Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Deb Haaland, and Mary Peltola.
Some vice-presidents then go on to be president like former President Joe Biden and former President George H.W. Bush.
There are 13 Indigenous candidates running for Congress in nine states.
- Bill Hill, U.S. House, Alaska At-Large, Dena’ina Athabaskan, Nonpartisan
- Mary Peltola, U.S. Senate, Alaska, Yup’ik, Democrat
- Johnathan Nez, U.S. House, Arizona 2nd Congressional District, Diné, Democrat
- Brenton Awa, U.S. House, Hawaii 2nd Congressional District, Native Hawaiian, Republican
- Sharice Davids, U.S. House, Kansas 3rd Congressional District, Ho-Chunk, Democrat
- Tia LeBrun, U.S. House, Louisiana 3rd Congressional District, United Houma Nation, Democrat
- Sean McCann, U.S. House, Michigan 4th Congressional District, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Democrat
- Peggy Flanagan, U.S. Senate, Minnesota, White Earth Nation, Democrat
- Claire Valdez, U.S. House, New York 7th Congressional District, Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, Democratic Socialist
- Josh Brecheen, U.S. House, Oklahoma 2nd Congressional District, Choctaw, Republican
- Tom Cole, U.S. House, Oklahoma 4th Congressional District, Chickasaw, Republican
- N’kiyla “Jasmine” Thomas, U.S. Senate, Oklahoma, Chickasaw, Democratic Socialist
The increase of candidates in the database is a combination of finding incumbents and an increase in first-time candidates, said Harvill.
“A few trends that are interesting to note, that not only do we have extraordinary top-of-ticket races that are happening this cycle, we’re seeing two trends in tandem. We have a number of first-time candidates running, something like half of the total candidates that we’re tracking are running for their seats as non-incumbents, (meaning) they haven’t held the seat previously,” Harvill said.
The other trend is Native candidates who are maturing in their political careers, said Harvill.
“They’re starting to move from a school board to a city council, or running from city council to mayor, and that progression is exciting to see,” Harvill said.
Even as the number of Indigenous candidates has increased, it’s still far from reaching representational parity, said Harvill.
“Of those 519,000 (elected public) offices, Native people need to occupy something around 17,000 to reach basic representational parity,” he said. “We’re 3.2 percent of the population nationally. That’s a basic starting place for representational democracy, but what we see is that we have just about 400 Native elected leaders nationally.”
Representation is important for a number of reasons. It shows young people the possibilities, and it ensures issues impacting Indian Country are brought to the table.
“For chambers and municipalities across the country: are Native people even being thought about in the room?” questioned Harvill.
Disclaimer: Mark Trahant serves as the board chair of IndiJ Public Media, the parent company of ICT.
