2026-ലെ ഇടക്കാല തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പിൽ മത്സരിക്കുന്നത് റെക്കോർഡ് എണ്ണം തദ്ദേശീയ അമേരിക്കൻ വംശജർ

A Native American woman has never held a governorship, or a seat in the U.S. Senate.

That could change this year, if former interior secretary Deb Haaland wins the governor's race in New Mexico, and if either former congresswoman Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) or Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) win their Senate bids.

Haaland, Peltola and Flanagan are part of a historically large class of at least 355 Native American and Indigenous candidates who ran or are running in local, state and federal primary and general elections this year. Many are running as Democrats, though there are some Republicans as well, including incumbent Oklahoma Reps. Tom Cole and Josh Brecheen at the federal level.

The previous high came in 2024, when at least 263 Native candidates ran for elected office, according to numbers maintained by Advance Native Political Leadership, a national Native American-led organization that aims to increase the number of elected Native and Indigenous lawmakers, and Indian Country Today.

"My goal has always been to ensure more Native Americans have the opportunity to lead," Haaland wrote in an email to The Washington Post. "Now I see more Native people running, winning, and leading in their communities, and I support them every step of the way."

Gabriel Sanchez, a senior fellow in at the Brookings Institution and a founding member of the University of New Mexico's Native American Budget and Policy Institute, said tribal sovereignty and protection of tribal lands have likely spurred candidates to run this year -- and often rank among Native American voters' top concerns in polling.

"Native Americans are not as partisan as other Americans, and oftentimes they make their voting decision not based on their party but on which candidate they perceive is going to be in the best interest of their tribe," he said.

Sanchez noted that many Native Americans view running for office through a similar lens, and that the uptick this year likely stems from concern that the system isn't working for Native communities.

"It's not a coincidence. I think the rise in interest among Native Americans to run for office in the first place is a result of all that context," he said.

Many Native and Indigenous organizers say the recent increase in Native candidacies is thanks to a shift in how their communities view public service that began in 2018 when Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas), a member of the Ho-Chunk nation, became the first Native American women elected to Congress.

That shift only accelerated when Haaland became the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, as interior secretary during the Biden administration, said Jordan James Harvill, the senior director of national programs at the ANPL. He added that Native American and Indigenous folks were lining up to watch her confirmation hearings, sharing memes and talking openly about more Native representation at the federal level.

"Native people have some of the lowest trust in government of any group in the country," Harvill said, in part due to a long history of broken treaties, forced assimilation, relocations and removals. "To be able to see ourselves in office -- and believe that there was an impact -- changed something fundamentally."

While figures like Haaland, Davids and Peltola provided inspiration, organizers and Native experts say the rising numbers of Native and Indigenous candidates also come from years of organizing and outreach.

Haaland -- who polls show leading the New Mexico gubernatorial race -- first came to politics through organizing. She writes in her memoir that she once registered 400 tribal members to vote in one weekend, and that she organized for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in New Mexico before running for office herself.

"You have to show up in Native communities and have face to face conversations to encourage people to register to vote," Haaland said in her emailed statement. "It takes an investment of time and resources dedicated to outreach."

To grow the candidate pool, the ANPL began recruiting potential candidates in 2021. Harvill said over a thousand Native and Indigenous individuals have applied to a program that recruits and trains members to run for office, and Flanagan credited the initiative with making real change.

"Programs like the Native American Leadership Program, which grew into Advance Native Political Leadership, are training people to run and win," Flanagan said in an email to The Post. "The more people see someone like them doing it, the more step up. But real obstacles remain, especially in fundraising and building support."

The ANPL also partners with voter organizations to help tribal members sign up to vote and ensure that their registrations are valid amid ongoing efforts to purge noncitizens from voter rolls.

One of these groups is Arizona Native Vote, founded by Jaynie Parrish, a citizen of the Navajo Nation who has spent the past year helping tribal members confirm that they are properly registered to vote. Arizona rules require that voters show proof of citizenship to receive a full ballot, making voting access harder for tribal members who lack a passport or birth certificates, who may have documents with inconsistent names or dates, or who live hours away from their closest registration center.

"It's crazy that we have to talk to them and be like, 'I'm sorry, we have to verify citizenship,'" she said. "This is a barrier."

Parrish is working in a congressional district that features a Native American leader -- former Navajo president Jonathan Nez, a Democrat -- who is challenging incumbent Rep. Elijah Crane (R). The Arizona district is largely rural, and larger than the state of Pennsylvania, which organizers say makes it harder to register voters and encourage them to show up to the polls.

While the Cook Political Report currently rates the race as "Likely Republican," Nez is counting on the mobilization of Native voters, who make up 20 percent of the district's population, to flip the seat, as well as the participation of independent voters, who make up 30 percent of registered voters in the district. (There is some overlap between the groups -- about a quarter of Native voters nationwide identify as independent.) Nez lost to Crane by nine points in 2024, but outperformed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris by six points.

Nez, who grew up on a ranch without running water or electricity in Navajo Nation, said there are still many infrastructure deficiencies in tribal communities in his district -- including major water access problems. And, mirroring the concerns of voters across the country, Native residents say the rising cost of food and gas has further strained already tight budgets, Nez said.

"My opponent has voted six times to continue to support the war in Iran when he knows the people in this country are feeling it in their wallets and their purse," Nez said.

Ben Petersen, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Nez has misdiagnosed the issues of most concern to people in the district.

"Eli Crane is a warrior. What voters in AZ-02 take issue with is Nez's past support for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," Petersen said. Spokespeople for Crane's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Some candidates running this year say they hope to lay a foundation for future Native candidates, and that regardless of the outcome, they hope that in decades to come, a large pool of Native candidates will be unremarkable.

"I want my daughter, and other young Native women and girls to see this as normal and possible for them," Flanagan wrote via email. "Native people couldn't even vote in this country until 1924, about a hundred years ago. Now we have a chance to be at the table."