There Are a Record Number of Indigenous Candidates This Year. Here’s a Few to Watch.
A total of 146 Natives are in races big and small, making their voices heard nationwide and in 10 states.
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A record number of Indigenous candidates, including a historic number of Native women, could be elected to offices nationwide on Tuesday, in what would close the gap on the invisibility of Indigenous issues in government affairs.
An unprecedented 146 Native candidates are running as Democrat, Republican, Independent, and of the newly formed Aloha ʻĀina Party, for seats available across the House of Representatives and the Senate, and onto less-observed political contests that could have a significant impact for Indian Country.
Of those candidates, 79 are Indigenous women building on the midterm elections of two years ago which saw for the first time, two Native American women, Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), in New Mexico, and Sharice Davids, (Ho-Chunk), in Kansas, make history when they were elected to the U.S. House. Before then, no Indigenous women had been elected to Congress. Both are expected to be re-elected, Tuesday.
In Idaho, Paulette Jordan, a tribal citizen of the Coeur D’Alene Tribe, will be the state’s…
