Native American Women Win New Mexico Governorship, Minnesota Senate Seat and Navajo Nation Presidency

Native American women won offices on Tuesday that none had held before: a state governorship, a U.S. Senate seat and the presidency of the tribe with the largest land base in the country.

Democrat Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo citizen and former Interior secretary under Joe Biden, defeated Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor, to become governor of New Mexico. Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor and a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, won a U.S. Senate seat. She defeated Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter.

On the tribal side, Crystalyne Curley was elected the first woman president of the Navajo Nation. Tina Abrams was elected to lead the Seneca Nation of Indians in western New York, the first woman to do so in the modern history of that tribe.

The numbers

At least 75 Native women or non-binary and Two Spirit candidates won office this cycle, according to Advance Native Political Leadership and the news site ICT. A record 363 Indigenous candidates ran in local, state and federal races, with at least 180 of them winning.

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Ho-Chunk Nation citizen, was re-elected in Kansas to a fifth term. Davids and Haaland were the first Native women elected to Congress, in 2018.

One race is still open. Mary Peltola, a Yup'ik Democrat and former congresswoman, is challenging Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska. The race remains undecided. A Peltola victory would mark the first time three Native people have served in the Senate simultaneously, alongside Flanagan and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Cole, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

"This is a seismic shift that is happening in our communities," said Jordan James Harvill, a Cherokee Nation citizen and strategist with Advance Native Political Leadership.

Only four Native people have served in the Senate in its more than 230 years, all men.

The Navajo Nation result

Curley narrowly beat attorney Justin Jones, according to unofficial results. The Navajo Nation spans 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and is second in population only to the Cherokee Nation. Its modern centralized government has been led by men since it was established under federal pressure over a century ago.

Not everyone in the Nation sees the result the same way. Some Navajo people believe traditional teachings bar women from top government posts. Others point to the matrilineal structure of Diné society as the opposite.

"You see the language of tradition used to both deride the possibility of a woman being president and to say that women's leadership is needed now," said Jennifer Nez Denetdale, a professor of Diné studies at the University of New Mexico.

Curley said she faced sexist rhetoric on the campaign trail. "As women, we have to work twice or triple as hard, especially within Navajo politics," she said.

Voter Lene Bitsui backed Curley because she thought Curley could restore order to a tribal government she saw as dysfunctional. She expected her neighbors to reject a woman. "I was wrong, and I feel so happy to have been wrong," Bitsui said.

After Curley and her running mate Chris Deschene take office in January, they plan to transition the Navajo Nation away from coal development and reassert its leading role in national discussions around federal Indian policy.

Identity was not the pitch for all of them

Haaland has played down the milestone framing. In an interview before the vote, she said: "Somebody has to be the first. I just don't want to be the last, right?" She also said representation "truly does matter. It's not just a slogan."

Oklahoma was the only state to have elected a tribal citizen governor before this year. Those two were Democrat Johnston Murray in the 1950s and Republican Kevin Stitt, who holds the office now. Republican Yvette Herrell, who is Cherokee, served in Congress from 2021 to 2023 as the first Republican Native woman elected there.

New Mexico state Sen. Angel Charley, who is Laguna, Zuni and Diné, said seeing Haaland and Davids on a national stage made running feel possible for her.

A Democratic wave, and Republican finger-pointing

The Native firsts came in an election in which Democrats took control of the House and Senate. In the Fox News Voter Poll of more than 100,000 registered voters, conducted Oct. 19 to Nov. 3, rural voters backed Republican House candidates by 18 points. That is down 10 points from Trump's 28-point margin among them in 2024.

Pew Research Center data cited by The Epoch Times show Republicans won 34 percent of Hispanic voters this year, compared with 48 percent for Trump in 2024.

Republicans are arguing among themselves over the cause. Vice President JD Vance blamed the war in Iran. "Everyone knows why we lost," he said, adding that "many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the result the "political equivalent of a meteor strike" and said voters were rejecting Republicans in Washington, not embracing Democratic policies. President Trump said Vance's view was "largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit, short-term," and that he would start the war again.

Haaland, Flanagan and Curley each won their own race, in a state or a tribal election with its own electorate.

What comes next

The Navajo Nation result is based on unofficial returns. Peltola and Sullivan are still waiting on the Alaska count.