Record Number Of Native Americans Running For State And Federal Offices In 2018

BY LEILA FADEL & TALIA WIENER, NPR

On a recent afternoon in Albuquerque, N.M., Deb Haaland sits with a thick stack of paper in front of her, calling donors to thank them for their contributions and to ask them for more money.

After winning her Democratic primary, Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, a Native American tribe, is running for the U.S. House in a strongly Democratic district in New Mexico. That means she may soon be the first Native American woman in Congress.

“Somebody has to be the first,” she says as she walks through the southeast neighborhood where her office is. “Native women, I mean we’ve been on the frontlines for a long, long time. Think of all the native women who have fought for treaty rights and fishing rights and all of those things.”

Haaland worked on President Obama’s 2008 campaign before chairing the state’s Democratic Party. But after thinking a woman would become president in 2016 and feeling let down, she says she decided to run for federal office. Because she says, she understands what it is to be working class in the United States.

“I identified with so much of what people go through in this district and in the state. Half of our population is Medicaid eligible,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be on food stamps. My daughter and I both are paying off our student loans. So, I just felt like I know what it’s like and we need more people who know what it’s like to struggle.”

Haaland is a single mom, went to 13 different public schools in the district where she’s on the ballot and says she understands Indian country.

“We have a president who doesn’t understand what the trust responsibility is to tribes or our history at all.” She says that’s a major reason why she’s running for Congress. “You want to have influence over people who are making decisions for one of the most vulnerable communities in our country.”

She’s one of a record number of Native American women running for office this year — a record number of women among a record number of Native American candidates. This year, Haaland says, is the year of women of color.

“This year, maybe we just all said separately, ‘It’s time us to take the next step.’ “

Then there’s Peggy Flanagan, a state representative in Minnesota now running for lieutenant governor. Her top campaign issues include access to child care, education and inequities affecting “children of color and Indigenous students.”

But also, she says, it’s an opportunity to educate people about Native Americans and to stop legislation that’s done to her community, rather than alongside it.

“Minneapolis is the birthplace of the American Indian movement and we have incredible history as well as infrastructure,” she says. “Oftentimes, it’s just ignorance … That we weren’t given these rights. We always had them. Educating folks on issues of sovereignty.”

Democrat Paulette Jordan addresses supporters after winning the party primary Tuesday, May 15, 2018. CREDIT: AMANDA PREACHER/BSPR

There’s also Paulette Jordan, making a Democratic bid for governor of Idaho. She’s a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and previously served as an elected state representative. If elected in November she’d become the first Native American governor of any state — and first woman to lead the Gem State.

“We need leadership that will help defend the voices of the people and the needs of our community. There is no other option but to lead. That’s why I’m running for governor,” she says. “Balance in the voices of representation in government is wholly unique and very critical.”

Even without big wins in the fall for these candidates, the sheer number matters says Mark Trahant. He’s the editor of the news site Indian Country Today. He’s been keeping track of Native American candidates for the last six years.

“There really is a record year this year. It’s extraordinary,” Trahant says. “You see folks running for such a variety of offices.”

There are two Native American men in Congress now – both Republicans — and Trahant expects as many as ten Native Americans will be on the congressional ballot this fall. He says that’s double the number in 2016.

In Oklahoma, there is a race between two Native American candidates, one a Democrat and the other a Republican. As for statewide offices, there are more Native Americans running for lieutenant governor alone, six candidates, than the number who ran for statewide offices across the country in 2016.

Trahant says some of this is a reaction to the current political climate, but it’s also the fruit of years of work by Native American organizers, advocates and politicians.

And the candidates, he says, especially the women, are dismantling stereotypes with campaigns that show the diversity of Indian country.

Tatewin Means, a candidate who recently lost a primary for attorney general in South Dakota, had a groundbreaking political ad because it was in Lakota. Trahant says is the first time he’s seen a political ad in a native language.