Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
WASHINGTON — Four years ago, a national news channel called Native Americans voters “something else” during a live broadcast.
One presidential election later, Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging her support for tribal sovereignty and self-determination in an effort to win Native voters in Arizona. U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Cherokee, traveled to Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina to ask Native voters to cast their ballots for former president Donald Trump.
“The power of the Native vote has been recognized, because our vote made the difference in so many states, and holds the balance of the outcome in the 2024 elections,” said Judith LeBlanc, the executive director of Native Organizers Alliance, and Action Fund.
The Native vote is critical for several local, state and federal elections this year. It could be the deciding factor in seven states — Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Compared to the midterm elections in 2022, there has been a 44 percent increase according to Advance Native Political Leadership. It’s looking to be another record breaking year for the Native vote and Indigenous candidates.
“Every single year, even in the midterm, even in 2023, we saw continuous growth in Native candidates running for office,” said Jordan James Harvill, national program director for Advance Native Political Leadership.
In March, Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s campaign put over $1 million to reach Native voters in the state, and get them registered to vote. He’s in one of the toughest and tightest races this election. His seat is critical to maintaining Democratic control of the U.S. Senate.
The race moved into the national spotlight after it was confirmed that Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy made racist and disparaging remarks about the Crow Nation in 2023.
“My ranching partner and really good friend, Turk Stovall, he’s a Crow Indian and we ranch together on the Crow rez,” Sheehy could be heard saying. “So I’m pretty involved down there, going to the Crow rez, and their annual Crow parade this year. I rope and brand with them every year down there. So, it’s a great way to bond with all the Indians being out there while they’re drunk at 8 a.m., and you’re roping together. Every heel shot that you miss, you get a Coors Light upside your head.”
Western Native Voice, a Montana nonprofit organization that focuses on building Native leadership, and other national Native civic engagement organizations have been working to increase the number of registered voters on the Crow Nation. They represent a huge untapped voting bloc in the state. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, American Indian and Alaska Native alone and in combination make up 9.3 percent of the state’s population.
A former chairman of Crow Nation, Alvin Not Afraid Jr., endorsed Trump in 2020.
“The Crow, since the early 1800s have always been an ally to the government,” Not Afraid said during the endorsement. “From the Battle of Little Bighorn, World War II, Vietnam, and I, myself in the Marine Corp just after Desert Storm.”
“Today I stand before you to endorse, as well as support, President Trump,” he said at a 2020 event.
Harvill has described the state as a good bellwether for the power of the Native vote and what matters to Indigenous voters.
“(Crow people) in Montana are a huge block of the Native population and have this cycle come into the news because the Republican opponent has really made some racist remarks against Crow peoples,” Harvill said. “There’s a question of whether Crow peoples will hold them accountable for that and if they’ll be voting differently than we’ve seen them in past cycles.”
It will show how direct outreach by campaigns and Native voting organizations can impact voter participation and election results.
“If the level of investment that has been seen by the Tester campaign, and through organizations like Western Native Voice is going to make that difference,” Harvill said. “We look at it as a state that demographically is on the move, but also a state where the Native community has been called into the conversation and how will (they) react in that place when (they’re) making a decision as to who should represent (them) in the U.S. Senate.”
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska has a close race this election. She is the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress. Approximately 20 percent of the state identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the U.S. Census, and the state is home to 229 Alaska Native villages.
Cook’s Political Report lists the race as a toss-up.
In 2020, she won with 55 percent of the votes. Only 7,477 were transferred to her during ranked-choice voting. Her closest opponent was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 45 percent of the votes.
“This is her first re-election campaign, and there’s a question of whether a Democrat is going to be able to win statewide in Alaska,” Harvill, Cherokee and Choctaw, said. “I think that it looks really good for her, and I think that it’s something that we need to watch because it is the first time we’ve had an Alaska Native person represent the state in Congress, and so it’s a seat that we need to watch really closely.”
Down in Arizona, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is running for Senate and has made the Native vote a priority for his campaign. He intentionally made his first campaign stop on sovereign lands in January 2023. VoteVets released campaign ads for Gallego that feature Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language.
In the primary election, Gallego got nearly 500,000 votes. His opponent Kari Lake got just over 400,000. On Oct. 29, Cook’s Political Report had the race as likely Democrat.
The Native vote in Arizona helped Biden to win the state in 2020.
The state will definitely play a big role in this election as well. Harris held a rally in Arizona again on Halloween. This is her second trip to the state this month. She also held a rally in August.
Her running mate, Tim Walz, was in Window Rock, Arizona — the capital of the Navajo Nation — over the weekend.
“I want to be clear and make sure you hear it and that the country hears it,” Walz said during the rally according to a press release. “Kamala Harris and I recognize the promises this country has made to Indigenous peoples. We will safeguard and strengthen the bonds between our nations and uphold our trust and treaty obligations. The highest law is to honor tribal sovereignty, promote tribal consultation and ensure tribal self-determination across this country.”
Harris also called the chairman of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina to talk about their federal recognition efforts. In 2020, she pledged her support for those efforts. The tribe makes up the majority of Robeson County, nearly half the population is Native American. There are 55,000 Lumbee citizens, making it the largest Indigenous nation east of the Mississippi.
Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Cherokee, met with Lumbee leaders as well. Former president Trump also gave his support for the tribe’s federal recognition in 2020.
“North Carolina is newly coming onto the scene — or at least renewed interest as a swing state — (and) has a huge Native population primarily in Lumbees and Eastern Band of Cherokees,” Harvill said. “This state is on the map this cycle. All of those states have the opportunity to decide the president and in all of those states Native communities are such a large population that whether we turn out or not may very well decide the state.”
The Native vote in North Carolina could be the key to winning that state in the presidential election. With such narrow margins in elections, just a few thousand votes could make the difference.
The Native vote, which has often been overlooked and underestimated, could pull candidates over the finish line. This election, presidential and congressional candidates finally understand that.
This year boasted a historic number of Indigenous people running for office. There are 250 Indigenous people from 25 states and 82 Indigenous nations who ran for office in 2024, according to a database by ICT and Advance Native Political Leadership. This is a 44 percent increase since the midterm elections in 2022.
Of the 250, 13 percent won their seats outright, and did not have to run in the general election. On Election Day, 178 Indigenous candidates will be on the general election ballot in their respective counties, and states. That breaks down to 95 Democrats, 21 Republicans, 3 Independents, and 59 nonpartisan.
“A few really exciting things that we’re keeping an eye on at the Native Leadership Institute — where we (Advance Native Political Leadership) support candidates who are running — we are recognizing that over 80 percent of our applicants are coming from Native women, and that’s being reflected in the overall pool of candidates.”
In 2022, there were more Indigenous men who ran for office but more Indigenous women were elected.
This year 137 women ran for office. There were 98 men.
Two years ago there was only one nonbinary person running for office. Now, there are four people who identify as nonbinary or Two Spirit.
There were no transgender candidates in 2022 and this year there is one.
ICT managing innovator Mark Trahant has been tracking Indigenous candidates for a decade. It started after he asked the National Council of State Legislators how many Native Americans were in office. They were unable to answer that question. So he started tracking elected officials and eventually it morphed into ICT’s 2024 Indigenous Candidates Database. The data comes from a partnership between ICT and Advance Native Political Leadership.
Every election the number of Indigenous candidates has increased. There was a 44 percent increase in candidates from 2022. This increase is partly due to better tracking of candidates, but also an increase of first-time candidates.
Nearly half of the candidates running for office were non-incumbents. These candidates could have been elected to another seat prior.
Candidates ran for everything from the U.S. House of Representatives, like Sharon Clahchischilliage, to Hoke County Register of Deeds, like Elaine Lowery Brayboy, in North Carolina.
“When we look at places like Nevada, Shea Backus, who is re-running for her seat in the state assembly in Nevada,” Harvill said. “She’s Cherokee. She’s the only Native representative in the state of Nevada’s legislature at the moment, and she is under fire in her district — (located) just on the edge of Clark County next to Las Vegas. That’s a seat that we’re going to be watching really closely. It came pretty close in the last election cycle.”
Arnold Thomas, Shoshone-Paiute, is looking to become the second Indigenous assemblymember in Nevada. He is in the general election competing for district 32 as a Democrat. Backus is also a Democrat.
In total, this cycle there were 119 Democrats, 29 Republicans and 4 Independents. An additional 98 ran in nonpartisan races.
Many of the Indigenous candidates have already won their races because there were no other candidates, ensuring that there will be a historic number of Indigenous candidates elected to office.
This is not the case for Charlotte Little, San Felipe Pueblo, in New Mexico. In the last election, 36 voters got the Democratic legislator elected to office. Her election story proves the adage that every vote counts.
“I think if we realize the power that we have through bringing our communities together to vote, then the big challenge becomes what happens after Election Day?” LeBlanc said. “Our work begins anew, under new conditions, depending on who we’re negotiating with across the table — both in Congress, on the local level, as well as in the White House.”
“Our vote determines how much headway we’re able to make on our historic and ancestral responsibility of achieving sovereignty for our tribal nations, and for our Native communities who live in urban areas, treaty rights are treaty rights. If you live on your land, or you live in Chicago,” she said.
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