Stories of #NativeVote18
candidates from across the country at the 100 day mark
Countdown. There are
now less than 100 days until Election Day. That means little time
for campaigns to reach every possible voter or to raise money to
get their message out.
The elections are 100
days away and there are far more than a hundred stories. Stories
about candidates. Stories about races where the Native vote can
make a difference. Stories about registration drives -- and making
sure that Native Americans have access to ballots.
And stories about the
last flurry of primary contests. Let's start with that.
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Campaign
tweet from Sharice Davids after her mother cast a ballot in
Kansas.
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The Kansas primary
goes national
Sharice Davids, Ho Chunk,
is running for Congress in Kansas third congressional district.
This race has taken on national implications as sort of a fight
between establishment Democrats and Bernie Sanders. In the minds
and tweets of many Sanders supporters, Davids is not progressive
enough. This is a district that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and
Davids' best case is that her record and ties to the district make
her the ideal candidate come November. This seat is now held by
Rep. Kevin Yoder, a Republican.
Davids has been ignoring
Sanders' support of one of her opponents, Brent Welder, and instead
been picking up endorsements from elected officials and citizens
within the district.
Davids tweeted Friday.
"It's been an amazing week. We launched our ad, welcomed 100s of
people into the campaign & stepped into the national spotlight
as Election Day approaches. But the highlight was going w/ my mom
as she cast a ballot for me. #KS03
(Previous:
A Vice President & now Bernie Sanders)
Vote early
Early voting and vote
by mail has already begun in many parts of the country. Early voting
has become such an important part of modern campaigns because it
allows a candidate to track their likely voters and get a good idea
about how many votes are cast before Election Day. Then, in theory,
you can make calls, and get voters to the polls on Election Day
to seal the deal.
Early voting is actually
an old idea. It was once seen as a way to protect the rural vote,
giving people more time to cast a ballot. But in the hectic modern
world it's an insurance policy for those of us who get busy, travel,
or just find it difficult to cast a ballot on Election Day.
Citizens like early voting.
It now accounts for more than a third of all ballots cast nationwide.
Top two primary in
Washington
Dino Rossi is a long
time politician who was once "elected" governor of Washington in
2004. That is until ballots were recounted again and again and it
turned out he lost the race by a 133 votes (out of 2.6 million votes
cast). He's Tlingit but rarely mentioned his affiliation until he
ran for governor a second time.
Rossi has become the
Washington Republican Party's reliable candidate. Since losing the
governor's race twice he has ran for the U.S. Senate and then was
appointed twice to fill in as a state senator for office holders.
He's running to replace a Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert, in the
8th congressional district.
Washington uses the top
two primary system. So voters on Aug. 7 will pick two candidates
for the November election, regardless of party.
Republicans and their
allies will be spending millions to hold this seat. The National
Republican Congressional Campaign Committee recently named Rossi,
59, as one of its "young guns" meaning that third-party dollars
and advertisements will crowd Seattle media before election day.
"These candidates have met a series of rigorous goals and surpassed
program benchmarks to establish a clear path to victory," the campaign
committee said. "Young Gun candidates represent the most competitive
congressional seats in the 2018 election cycle."
Who will vote?
This is always the question
for Native American voters. Previously Native people turned out
and helped elect Barack Obama. Eight and four years later not so
much. And Donald J. Trump won the presidency while losing the popular
vote. The system is skewed -- and the only way to get it back in
balance is for more of the 100 million non-voters to step up and
cast a ballot. (And for Indian Country that number is more than
a million non-voters.)
It's true that states
and other governments have built barriers to voting, making it that
much harder for people to cast a ballot. But it's also true that
a lot of people just don't vote.
A
2012 study by Demos says: "American Indians and Alaska Natives
voting rates are among the lowest of all racial and ethnic groups
in the U.S. Almost two out of five eligible American Indians and
Alaska Natives are not registered to vote. Even among registered
American Indians and Alaska Natives, the turnout rate is 5 to 14
percentage points lower than that of many of the registered voters
of other racial and ethnic groups."
Two years ago, for example,
Big Horn County had the lowest turnout in Montana, showing 55 percent
turnout. The county is mostly comprised of Crow and Northern Cheyenne
citizens. The statewide turnout was 74.4 percent.
Arizona scholars see
non-voting as a crisis. A report this monty by Arizona State University's
Morrison Institute for Public Policy found that 45 percent of registered
and other voting-age individuals did not cast ballots in the last
election. "Voter participation has been eroding for years," the
report said. "Perhaps this explains why no full alarm has been sounded,
even though it could be argued that today, 'voters don't determine
elections, non-voters do.' Such a harsh assessment of our democracy
is supported by the fact that while 2.6 million votes were cast
in the 2016 Arizona general election, there were 2.1 million 'potential
voters' who did not exercise their fundamental right. In other words,
close to half (45 percent) of otherwise eligible voters sat out
the election. That equation mirrors the national participation rate."
And at the very bottom
of those statistics are American Indian and Alaska Native citizens.
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Jeanne
Givens campaign ad.
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Year of the Native
Woman
No matter what happens
after the 100 day mark this has already been an historic cycle for
Native American women running for office. There are top tier candidates
for Congress, statewide office, legislature, and even more running
for corporation commissions, county offices, and city posts.
It's tempting to think
of this trend as a response to President Donald J. Trump and his
administration's policies. But that narrative arc would miss the
decades of work that's occured to get to this point. The first Native
women to run for Congress, Jeanne Givens, Coeur d'Alene, in Idaho
in 1988, and Ada Deer, Menominee, in Wisconsin in 1992, created
legacies that are very much a part of the landscape today. Paulette
Jordan, Coeur d'Alene, the Democratic nominee for governor in Idaho,
has said Givens is a mentor. And in Wisconsin, Arvina Martin, Ho
Chunk, is challenging the party establishment in her bid for Secretary
of State. That is exactly what Deer did in 1978 running for the
same office.
It's also interesting
how the national media has caught on to this trend. There have been
stories in The
New York Times, National
Public Radio, and Teen
Vogue.
(Previous:
She Represents: A survey of Native American women running for office)
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Alexandra
Fredericks (Facebook)
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Better elections
There are three Native
American candidates for secretaries of state, the chief election
officer (four if you count Bryon Mallot, who as Lt. Gov. is the
chief election officer).
First, Wisconsin. That
state's primary is also August 14 and Martin is running against
an incumbent who has been on the job as secretary of state for 35
years, Doug La Follett. A recent profile of Martin in Madison Magazine
pointed out her Roller Derby career. She competed in the 2018 World
Cup playing for Greece. Martin's father is a Stockbridge-Munsee
tribal citizen, while her mother's father came from Greece. "We
lost 795-7," Martin told the magazine. "But it was so much fun to
play against some of the best players in the world. I'd do it again
in a second. It was a blast."
On her Facebook page
Martin adds: "I work hard on the track and off. I'll bring that
same tenacity as your Secretary of State. Make sure you get out
to cast your ballot on August 14!"
At a recent candidate
forum, Martin said she was running to improve civic engagement and
voter participation. "I care deeply about the experiences of people
in Wisconsin," she was quoted saying in The Journal Times. "I think
being able to listen is a skill that, unfortunately, not enough
people in public office have. I am willing to listen."
The two other candidates
for Secretary of State are Alexandra Fredericks in South Dakota
and Gavin Clarkson in New Mexico
Frederick is Lakota.
She recently posted on Facebook: "Guys, I'm running as the underdog.
It's an uphill battle. It would be easy to just give up, to go out
and live MY life. But I answered the call to sacrifice for the people
of SD, so I'm asking for your help. If you believe in change, if
you want YOUR voice heard, please consider dropping a small donation.
Keep us on the road!"
At a recent candidate
forum she made the case for a more secure system. "Paper ballots.
It's very hard to corrupt a paper ballot and the most secure way
to vote," she said.
She is "carpooling" with
Wayne Fredericks, Rosebud, who is running for the state's public
utility commission. They were both nominated at the state Democratic
party convention.
Clarkson, Choctaw, was
the pick of Republican party leadership as the nominee for Secretary
of State after a previous candidate dropped out. He lost the primary
for Congress in the second congressional district. "Population
growth in Colorado, Texas and Utah was at least three-times as fast,"
he posted on Facebook. "Seventy percent of new jobs are created
by existing businesses, so our top priority must be getting government
of the backs of our entrepreneurs. #EnergyToEmpowerNM"?
Rise of the third
party candidates
One thing new this cycle
is the rise of the third party candidates. More Native Americans
are running for office as independents, on the Green Party ticket,
as a Libertarian, or without any party affiliation.
And the traditional parties
are not keen on that idea. Last month Arizona Senate candidate,
Eve Reyes-Aguirre said that her candidate petition was challenged.
"Two registered voters have challenged approximately 546 of our
1483 signatures," she wrote on her website. "This is a clear attack
on one of most inspiring grassroots efforts I have ever been a part
of in my decades of activism, and an insult to the effort, energy,
and diligence that went into each of those approximately 1,500 signatures.
The fact that the major parties want to and have the resources to
erase that with a little bit of rules lawyering and a team of resources
combing through our signatures is disappointing, but not surprising
considering the pushback we've received throughout this campaign."
She said "we are incredibly
disappointed at the notion of not being a part of the election in
November, we are galvanized by the fact that our campaign is a real
threat to their business-as-usual politics."
There remain two other
candidates for Congress as independents. Ray "Skip" Sandman running
for the 8th congressional district in Minnesota and Henry John Bear
running on the Green Party ticket in Maine. Sandman is Ojibwe and
Bear is a citizen of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians.
Bear is counting on a
new election mechanism, ranked choice voting. So in most U.S. elections
a candidate can win office with a minority of the vote. But in a
ranked choice process, voters are asked for their second and third
picks. Votes are tallied until a candidate has a majority, 50-percent
plus one.
"I intend to win this
seat with one of the biggest political upsets of our time to prove
that Mainers are sick of this situation and want better," Bear wrote
on his website. "This race for Congress will be decided by ranked
choice voting where our ideas will have an even greater opportunity
to be considered."
In Minnesota, Sandman
is campaigning to stop a mine (and a pipeline). He said the PolyMet
copper-nickel sulphide mine is a "highly toxic form of mining into
the fragile, water-rich ecosystem of northern Minnesota. The toxic
effects of this proposed mine places corporate interests over the
health of our communities."
Across the country there
are at least six Native American candidates running for legislatures
on third party tickets. They are:
--Sara Mae Williams,
Tohono O'odham, Green Party, Arizona House.
-- Adrian Owen Wagner,
Blackfeet, Green Party, Montana House.
-- Aaron Camacho, Prairie
Band Potawatomi, Green Party, Wisconsin Senate.
-- Rob Edwardson, Tlingit-Haida,
Independent, Alaska House.
-- Katie Nepton, Montagnais
First Nation, Libertarian, Michigan Senate.
-- Cristine Ives, Colville,
No party affiliation, Washington House.
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Paulette
Jordan (Idaho legislature)
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Two would be governors,
Paulette Jordan and Andria Tupola
Of course Paulette Jordan
has already done something that no other Native woman in the history
of country has done; she's the Democratic nominee for the governor
of Idaho. But she brings so much more to this race than just that.
She also represents the mindset of a generation, a millennial. This
is now the country's largest age cohort. (She's slightly older than
millennials.)
This is where numbers
get interesting. A poll last week published by Idaho Voices for
Change Now showed Jordan trailing the Republican nominee, Brad Little,
by 10 points. In a deep red, Republican state by Idaho, that's pretty
good news. The poll showed 8 percent for a third party candidate
(which could be a factor working against the Republican come November)
and more than a quarter of all voters undecided. The poll reflected
intense interest by voters; 84 percent said they will be voting.
A second Idaho poll by
Dan Jones & Associates found something else interesting that
could boost Jordan: A significant gender gap of 22 points that surfaces
because of the president and his policies. Jones told the Idaho
Statesman that it's a gap "he's rarely seen in his 40 years of polling."
Third point. A national
poll by Pew Research shows that the millennial generation, those
born after 1980, see the world and government differently than earlier
generations. "Millennials have a decided preference for a bigger
government providing more services: 57 percent say this, while 37
percent say they would rather have a smaller government providing
fewer services," Pew Research found.
Idaho has a young population.
And, if millennials vote (they say they will) that could elect Jordan.
And millennials, like women voters as reported in the poll, are
not happy with the administration. What's more Jordan has expressed
her independence running against the party's establishment. And
then winning. This fits the millennial profile, too. Millennials
are overwhelmingly identify themselves as independents, but who
vote for Democrats. The ideal match -- especially if millennials
show up to the polls in greater numbers than in past elections.
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Andria
Tupola (Campaign photo)
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Andria Tupola, who is
Samoan and Native Hawaiian, faces voters in the Hawaiian primary
on August 11. She is a clear favorite to win the Republican nomination.
A recent poll showed support from 41 percent of voters. Tupola says
she's feeling confident about winning the primary. "We're feeling
good but you know that's only half the battle. We need to build
enough momentum to fly through the primary with outstanding numbers
and bring it into the general," she told KITV news.
This spring she said:
"Hawaii is facing extensive systemic issues that we can no longer
ignore. The cost of living is at a point where many Native Hawaiians
are being forced to leave and start their lives in the US mainland.
As a result, we are also facing a massive homeless crisis that needs
to be addressed immediately. With poor roads and conditions, as
well as the never-ending tax increases, you can see why Hawaii desperately
needs change."
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Lt.
Governor candidate Peggy Flanagan poses with a supporter during
the Rondo Days parade in St. Paul on July 21. (Campaign photo)
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Minnesota makes history
Peggy Flanagan, White
Earth Ojibwe, and a state legislator, announced last fall that she
was running for the office of Lt. Governor. She would be the first
(a theme here) Native woman to serve in that office or any statewide
office in Minnesota.
The primary is August
14 and she is the candidate for the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Party.
"With about two weeks
left before the primary, we feel great about where we are. We sense
real momentum for the Walz-Flanagan ticket as the best DFL option
to beat Tim Pawlenty in the fall, "Flanagan told Indian Country
Today. "I have been overwhelmed by the support we've received from
Indian Country in Minnesota. Tim and I have visited 9 of the state's
11 Native American reservations, as well as a large Native housing
development called Little Earth in the heart of Minneapolis. I sense
an excitement from the community about the possibility of having
the first-ever Native American elected statewide. We're focused
now on turning those friends out, along with everyone else across
Minnesota who wants to see us win the nomination. As we've visited
with Native communities I've realized how much I can't do this without
all my aunties in communities across the state. They keep me humbled
but also give me the drive I need to keep going when the campaigning
gets tough."
She added: "It's been
a long summer but I really think we're going to get there. But it's
going to be really close so we know we have to focus on getting
out the vote."
History, right? Except
Flanagan is also one of two Native women currently seeking the lt.
governor's office in Minnesota.
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Donna
Bergstrom (Twitter)
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On the Republican side
of the ballot, Donna Bergstrom, Red Lake Ojibwe, is running with
Jeff Johnson for her party's nomination. Bergstrom is a retired
U.S. Marine after her service of 20 years. "I never once doubted
that the Marine Corps was the right choice for me. In my class,
we started out with just under 90 women and graduated about 25,"
she recently said on Twitter.
Bergstrom said her interest
in politics picked up because of the state's high taxes. She also
supports education reform and supports gun rights and the Second
Amendment.
"There is a sense of
arrogance in our politics," Bergstrom told The Journal in New Ulm,
Minnesota. "We want to change the way government does business.
We want to bring in people who represent our communities, represent
the changes we want and not be driven by the governing elite."
Oklahoma's runoff
primary election
Several states require
a majority -- fifty percent plus one -- for both the primary and
general elections. So when there are a lot of candidates, that pretty
much means there will be a second election. Oklahoma's runoff primary
is August 28.
There are two Native
American candidates for Congress that will be in that race. Jason
Nichols, the mayor of Tahlequah, is running for the House in the
2nd District, and Amanda Douglas is a candidate in the 1st congressional
district. Both are Cherokee citizens and Democrats.
There are two more candidates
for statewide office on the August ballot. Kevin Stitt, Cherokee,
a Republican candidate for governor; and Ashley Nicole McCray, Absentee
Shawnee and Lakota, for state corporation commission. She missed
winning the primary outright by less than one percentage point.
Stitt told the Muskogee
Politico Survey that as governor he will represent the entire
state when it comes to tribal gaming compacts. "As a registered
Cherokee, I know first-hand what a tremendous benefit the tribes
have been to our state, creating tens of thousands of jobs, expanding
health care options in rural Oklahoma, and more. When we enter negotiations,
I will be looking at what is market (comparable with states around
us) with tribal contracts and at what is in the best interest of
the entire state of Oklahoma," he said.
McCray has consistently
challenged the orthodoxy of Oklahoma as an oil and gas state. On
her Facebook page she recently posted: "Wind and sun - energy for
the long run!" Then she cited a study that showed Oklahoma moving
into the second state spot for wind power production.
Two incumbents, Reps.
Markwayne Mullin and Tom Cole will be on the November ballot. Both
are Republicans and are currently the only tribal citizens serving
in Congress.
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Deb
Haaland (Campaign photo)
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New Mexico making
history
Debra Haaland won the
party nomination for New Mexico's House seat but she still must
win the bid from the district voters in November.
Haaland, Laguna Pueblo,
recently told Albuquerque voters that it's time to abolish the Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.
"ICE was created to fight
terrorism in our country and instead, they're terrorizing families
across the country," she was quoted in The Albuquerque Journal.
"We absolutely need an agency to protect our borders, but we don't
need an agency to lay in wait outside of hospitals, courthouses
and schools to arrest parents in front of their children."
Native values as a
campaign message
Kaniela Ing, Native Hawaiian,
is calling for a new era of Democratic leadership. In his ad he
says it's easy to blame Trump and Republicans for the problem, but
Democrats are also to blame because of ties to the corporate establishment.
He says
"Hawaii for the many is possible."
He recalls stories from
his grandmother and his Indigenous people. "They preserved our environment
and took care of each other. She told me how our people were exploited
by colonizers, and forced to work on plantations. The people of
Hawaii have come together and risen up before, and we can do it
again. If my great-grandparents didn't stand up to the corporate
establishment of their time, I would still be on the plantation."
The end of his ad is
in the Hawaiian language.
Utah's James Singer,
Navajo, is also running on a platform
focused on millennial values. He said he can break the Republican
stranglehold on the 3rd congressional district with an "unabashedly
democratic socialist campaign focused on "bring[ing] back the welfare
state" and ending inequity."
In
an op-ed for Indian Country Today, Singer called for moving
the Bureau of Indian Affairs out of Interior and into the State
Department. "How much better would our nations be if we conducted
diplomacy between governments rather than as subordinates in a bureaucracy?"
he asked.
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Alaska
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott
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Then there's Alaska
Alaska politics run on
on a different track. Four years ago Byron Mallott, Tlingit, was
the Democratic Party's nominee for governor. But he left the ticket
(with the party's blessing) and he joined the independent ticket
of Bill Walker. They won and four years many expected a repeat path,
Republicans versus an independent and a Democrat.
But former U.S. Senator
Mark Begich tossed his hat into the ring shortly before the filing
period ended. So Alaska voters will have a three-way choice among
a Republican, still to be determined, Begich, and the independent
Walker.
There is an additional
twist: Begich's running mate is Debra Call, Dena'ina Athabascan,
and a member of the Knik Tribal Council and the Cook Inlet Tribal
Councils.
Last week Mallott wrote
a fundraising letter challenging both Republicans and Democrats
saying they did not have to make hard decisions about governing
the state during an era of shrinking resources. He called one of
the Republicans, a "cotton candy candidate" because he demanded
budget cuts without specifying one. He said Begich was nowhere to
be found during the fiscal crisis.
Call recently posted
on Facebook at at a campaign rally she taught the crowd how to introduce
themselves in Dena'ina. "I also talked to them about my plans to
improve public safety, strengthen education, expand rural economic
development, and invest in our workers so they can compete in a
21st century economy," she said. "This campaign is going to be about
our positive vision for Alaska, and Mark and I have the leadership
and vision to get our state back on the right track."
More stories?
The #NativeVote18 tally:
A
dozen candidates for Congress; 13 for statewide offices;
and nearly a hundred candidates still in the running for state legislatures.
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