Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
This is the first time Gwen Leaffe Carr, who is a longtime Democratic political consultant, has seen so many Indigenous women be major party nominees for high profile offices.
“I believe this is the largest slate of Native women to run for high office — governor, senate, Congress, or run for reelection,” Carr, Cayuga, told ICT. “Native women candidates have the ability to change the course of not only the history of this country, but the history of the world. That’s one of the reasons why it is so important for Natives, wherever my voice is reaching, anywhere in the country, to get out and vote.”
This election could be a historic one for Indigenous women running for public office at the state and federal level. Five Indigenous women are major party nominees in races for the U.S. House and Senate. Another is expected to become the first Native American woman elected as governor. All six women are Democratic candidates.
“We have always had great quality leaders. For 10,000 years, we have had great quality leaders,” Carr said. “America is just waking up to the fact that we exist and that we can be great leaders and need to be great leaders into the future, if we’re going to save our country and our planet.”
New Mexico Gubernatorial Race
Over the summer, former Interior Secretary and U.S. House Rep. Deb Haaland, Pueblo of Laguna, talked with reporters about how emotional it was for her to vote for herself during the Democratic primary in New Mexico.
“I got emotional, quite frankly, when I went to vote for myself, because you do that when you’re a candidate, and we’ve never had a Native American governor in New Mexico,” Haaland said. “We’re a multicultural state. I think representation matters, especially in a political era such as this one. So I’m really proud and honored to carry on the legacy of my ancestors who worked so incredibly hard to make sure that I had a place here today.”
In the gubernatorial race, Haaland is running on a joint ticket with lieutenant governor candidate Stephanie Garcia Richard. The pair is going up against Republican governor candidate Gregg Hull and lieutenant governor candidate David Gallegos.
In the past New Mexico has been a swing state, but over the last decade it’s become a Democratic stronghold. The state currently has a Democratic trifecta, with the state senate and house, as well as the governor’s office being held by Democrats.
The New Mexico congressional delegation is also held by all Democrats.
It is likely that Haaland will win and in doing so would become the first-known Native American woman elected as governor in the history of the country.
“One of the remarkable things about her race is that she is a front runner in the greatest sense, and that is not often a position of power that we see Native people, but particularly Native women in their races,” said Jordan James Harvill, senior national program director for Advance Native Political Leadership. “They are often the underdog that are fighting for the voice of the people, and Deb Haaland is fighting for the voice of the people from the front of the line. That’s been a beautiful piece.”
Her campaign has been historic in another way, Harvill said.
“She’s broken records in her fundraising for a governor’s race, historically, for New Mexico,” Harvill, Cherokee and Choctaw, said. She’s ran a campaign that has touched every county in New Mexico and invested extra in a deep organizing base that is reviving the state’s organizing apparatus, which has just been a beautiful thing to see.”
U.S. Senate
The upper chamber of Congress could see for the first time an Indigenous woman senator.
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Nation, is running in a tight race against Republican candidate Michele Tafoya, a first-time political candidate. Tafoya is a former well-known NFL sports broadcaster.
Some polls show Flanagan winning by double digits, others have it as nearly a tie.
“She’s running in a pretty competitive race, and she’s really representing this ideological shift in the national politics that I think is emblematic and serves as a little bit of bellwether of what 2028 and future elections will be like,” Harvill said.
Harvill describes Flanagan’s platform as a “politics of care,” meaning her agenda focuses on a mix of affordability issues like child tax credits, universal free school lunches, and access to food and housing.
“If you look at issue positions for Native people across the country, in polling and in focus groups, we are talking about being able to provide basic food and housing, to be able to care for our elders in their later years. We’re often multigenerational households,” Harvil said.
Moving to Alaska’s competitive U.S. Senate race, former U.S. House Rep. Mary Peltola, Yup’ik, is running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican. Sullivan’s wife and three children are Kuyukon Athabascan.
The race has gained national attention because the outcome would impact Republican control of the U.S. Senate. During the primary election, Peltola won with an 8-point lead, according to certified election results.
If elected, she would be the first Alaska Native elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 2022, Peltola became the first Alaska Native elected to the U.S. House after winning a special election.
Peltola is a Democrat but has been running her campaign focused on “fish, family and freedom.” As a former House member, she was one of the least loyal Democrats, demonstrating her commitment to prioritizing Alaska constituents.
“She’s hyper focused on Alaska, and anything that doesn’t serve Alaska, she’s just jettisonned it,” Mark Trahant, longtime political correspondent, said. “It didn’t surprise me at all, for example, when she told Kamala Harris that she didn’t want to have any help in this campaign race, either with money or any visibility, because that’s not Alaska. She’s just got that focus.”
The key national race will be close and with recent controversies, the certification of the election will likely take longer than expected.
A recent New York Times article alleges that Peltola’s campaign recruited former teacher Dan J. Sullivan, not to be confused with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, to run for the U.S. Senate. Peltola’s campaign and national Democrats have denied these allegations.
Regardless, this is a common political practice called ballot-stacking, which means one party or candidate recruits a losing candidate or spoiler candidate, to impact election results in favor of their candidate.
It is not illegal and candidates can choose to run for public office for any reason.
In Oklahoma, Democratic socialist N’Kiyla “Jasmine” Thomas, Chickasaw Nation, made national headlines when she secured the Democratic nomination over a more centrist Democrat. For a Democratic socialist to win a major party nomination in a deeply conservative state was shocking. She is running for a U.S. Senate seat against Republican candidate Kevin Hern, who currently represents Oklahoma 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House.
Thomas is a certified nursing assistant who was inspired to run for Congress after a traumatic experience at a for-profit college she attended as a nursing student, she said in a social media video. This is why her platform focused on improving the healthcare system and ensuring hospitals are adequately staffed.
This is going to be an incredibly challenging race for Thomas. According to Cook’s Political Report, Hern is the clear favorite and the seat is described as solidly red.
U.S. House
In the U.S. House, the longest-serving Native American woman in Congress, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, is hoping to secure her fifth term.
Davids, Ho-Chunk, has always been in a competitive district and fights every election to secure her seat. Currently, she’s the only Indigenous Democrat in Congress and often works across partisan lines.
Her platform focuses on her constituents and their needs. Davids is also active in her district. This has been key to her reelection.
“Our landmark queer leader, and who’s really pioneering a very similar type in Congress, like Mary Peltola, is really thinking about how you bridge Indigenous identity and hold the authenticity of that, while also thinking about how you build bridges for a community that is very diverse and is not always on the same page. It’s a very competitive election,” Harvill said.
Davids is also the first openly queer Native American elected to Congress.
In New York, state Assemblymember Claire Valdez is running for a U.S. House seat. From Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, she could be the first known Native American to represent New York in Congress. She is a Democratic socialist.
As the Democratic nominee, she is likely to secure her seat for New York’s 7th Congressional District. The district covers parts of Queens and Brooklyn, two of New York City’s boroughs. She has been endorsed by well-known Democratic socialists, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
She is up against Republican candidate Melvin Rivera and Working Families Party candidate Priscilla Ghaznavi.
The general elections will be held on Nov. 3 across the country.
ICT will be hosting its sixth election night coverage, a live three-hour broadcast, on Nov. 3. It will start at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT. Watch it live at FNX, ICT’s website or ICT’s YouTube.
