The outspoken Arizona representative and Marine veteran announced he will be running for the Senate seat, currently occupied by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, in 2024
#NativeVote24
Historically, issues in Indian Country have been fairly bipartisan but currently there is no Democratic Indigenous senator in Congress. Former U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, a Republican, was elected in November and is the only Indigenous member of the Senate.
“I will do my best to represent Indian Country,” Gallego said.
Native vote in Arizona
One of the most influential voting blocs in Arizona are Native American voters. In Navajo County, over half resides on the sovereign lands of the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache. It was also the only county that gained voters in the 2022 midterm election.
The number of voters increased from the 2020 presidential election year, a huge feat considering that most areas of the country see a decline in people heading to the polls.
“I think for a long time, Native voters in Arizona packed a lot of punch,” Jaynie Parrish, executive director of the Navajo County Democrats, said. “They never understood the power of Native voters or they never gave it enough credit.”
This has all changed over the last few years as it has become apparent how powerful the Native vote is. This voting bloc, which in Arizona overwhelmingly votes blue, carried President Joe Biden to win the state in 2020.
“I always tell people, it just didn't start in 2020. It's been a long legacy of leaders going back to the 80s that have worked and worked. Organizers that have worked and worked,” Parrish said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola also credit Native voters for their wins in Alaska. Other states where the Native vote is powerful are Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada, according to Jacqueline De León, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in a panel last fall.
On the grounds, Parrish has heard that Indigenous voters and volunteers don’t agree with Sinema’s actions.
“Some of the matriarchs did express disappointment in a lot of her recent behaviors and decisions,” Parrish said. “However, that didn't stop them from doing the work.”
“That's not going to deter us from still voting and making sure that we have good Democrats working for us,” she added.
Sinema helped to secure $166,062 in the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill for San Carlos Apache Tribe to clean up brownfield sites that pose an environmental and public health risk. She also co-signed a letter requesting a major disaster declaration for the Havasupai Tribe. Shortly after President Biden signed the declaration allowing the tribe to qualify for funding.
Sinema was elected in 2018 and is up for reelection in 2024. Senators serve six-year terms. She has yet to state whether or not she will run. In the general election, the Independent senator will face both a Republican and Democratic nominee should she seek reelection.
In the first day, the Gallego campaign raised over a million dollars with more than 27,000 donations flooding in. His campaign broke a record previously held by Sen. Mark Kelly, the other Arizona Senate member, for money raised in a single day.
By June of 2022, Kelly had raised over $50 million, none of the republican candidates were even close to that. If Gallego’s Senate campaign is anything like Kelly’s, fundraising won’t be an issue.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, who represents Arizona's third congressional district, is running for the Senate. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's seat is up for reelection in 2024.
(Photo by Pauly Denetclaw, ICT)
WASHINGTON — Ruben Gallego is annoyed with political candidates who end their campaigns vying for the Native vote.
“That's where they go in the last two weeks of the election,” Gallego told ICT. “ After they've ignored Indian Country the whole time. Not talk to any of the leaders. Not talk to any of their traditional tribal leaders or their elders, showed any respect to the culture, and then they show up and hope to have extra votes.”
He wants to be different and he is. Gallego's first stop after his U.S. Senate kickoff event in Phoenix at the end of January was a trip to southwestern Navajo Nation, in the small and rural community of Dilkon, Arizona, a three-and-a-half-hour drive north from the district he represents in Congress.
“Instead of ending the campaign, we're going to start the campaign on sovereign land,” Gallego said.
The Democrat made another campaign stop in Whiteriver, Arizona, on White Mountain Apache lands.
In late January, Gallego announced that he would be running against Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in the 2024 election. Gallego currently represents Arizona’s third congressional district in the House which covers downtown Phoenix. He served in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an infantryman. Before being elected to Congress, he was a state House representative from 2010 to 2014. He was elected to Congress in 2014. He is now in his fifth term as a member of the House.
He sits on the House Natural Resources Committee and the subcommittee previously known as the subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States (now the subcommittee on Indian and Insular affairs). Most of the legislation related to Indigenous affairs passes through the Natural Resources Committee and the subcommittee on Indian and Insular affairs on its way to the House floor.
Sinema recently switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, a move that could prove devastating for the party’s slim margin in the Senate. Though Sinema has stated she would not caucus with Republicans and so far hasn’t. To caucus with a political party means in short that you are a supporter or member of that party’s agenda.
This could change. The GOP recently invited Sinema to caucus with them. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the party’s whip, said he’s had a conversation before about Sinema caucusing with Republicans.
A party’s whip is by the books a person who records and secures votes as well as making sure representatives are present for roll call and votes. The party whip is an influential role that ensures members vote in line with the party agenda and not their personal platforms.
Sinema has yet to declare whether or not she will be running for reelection. Other possible candidates include Kari Lake and Blake Masters, who both unsuccessfully ran for seats in Arizona last year.
“What I want to do is make sure that people have the same chance I've had to fulfill and live the American dream, no matter where you are, no matter who you are,” Gallego said. “There's a senator right now, that's not helping that. She's more geared to helping the moneyed interests and powerful than she is towards the people of Arizona, including Native Americans in Arizona.”
The Phoenix metro is home to 73,850 American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the 2021 American Community Survey. They make up 1.5 percent of the city’s population. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community are located within the Phoenix metropolitan area. While most of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is located near Tucson, Arizona, one of their five communities is in Guadalupe, a Phoenix suburb near Tempe.
There are 22 federally-recognized tribes in the state. American Indians and Alaska Natives make up 5.3 percent of the state’s population.
“We have treaty responsibilities to make sure that we are working together,” he said. “Number one, we want to help Indian Country unlock their economic potential.”
Gallego’s platform for Indian Country includes creating less federal oversight when it comes to lands managed by Native nations.
“Indian Country is sophisticated enough. They can make decisions for themselves,” he said. “They shouldn't have to keep coming back for permission for us for them to do things with their land that they want to do.”
He also likes to see more funding for housing, public safety, infrastructure and Indian Health Service.
“That's where they go in the last two weeks of the election,” Gallego told ICT. “ After they've ignored Indian Country the whole time. Not talk to any of the leaders. Not talk to any of their traditional tribal leaders or their elders, showed any respect to the culture, and then they show up and hope to have extra votes.”
He wants to be different and he is. Gallego's first stop after his U.S. Senate kickoff event in Phoenix at the end of January was a trip to southwestern Navajo Nation, in the small and rural community of Dilkon, Arizona, a three-and-a-half-hour drive north from the district he represents in Congress.
“Instead of ending the campaign, we're going to start the campaign on sovereign land,” Gallego said.
The Democrat made another campaign stop in Whiteriver, Arizona, on White Mountain Apache lands.
In late January, Gallego announced that he would be running against Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in the 2024 election. Gallego currently represents Arizona’s third congressional district in the House which covers downtown Phoenix. He served in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an infantryman. Before being elected to Congress, he was a state House representative from 2010 to 2014. He was elected to Congress in 2014. He is now in his fifth term as a member of the House.
He sits on the House Natural Resources Committee and the subcommittee previously known as the subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States (now the subcommittee on Indian and Insular affairs). Most of the legislation related to Indigenous affairs passes through the Natural Resources Committee and the subcommittee on Indian and Insular affairs on its way to the House floor.
Sinema recently switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, a move that could prove devastating for the party’s slim margin in the Senate. Though Sinema has stated she would not caucus with Republicans and so far hasn’t. To caucus with a political party means in short that you are a supporter or member of that party’s agenda.
This could change. The GOP recently invited Sinema to caucus with them. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the party’s whip, said he’s had a conversation before about Sinema caucusing with Republicans.
A party’s whip is by the books a person who records and secures votes as well as making sure representatives are present for roll call and votes. The party whip is an influential role that ensures members vote in line with the party agenda and not their personal platforms.
Sinema has yet to declare whether or not she will be running for reelection. Other possible candidates include Kari Lake and Blake Masters, who both unsuccessfully ran for seats in Arizona last year.
“What I want to do is make sure that people have the same chance I've had to fulfill and live the American dream, no matter where you are, no matter who you are,” Gallego said. “There's a senator right now, that's not helping that. She's more geared to helping the moneyed interests and powerful than she is towards the people of Arizona, including Native Americans in Arizona.”
The Phoenix metro is home to 73,850 American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the 2021 American Community Survey. They make up 1.5 percent of the city’s population. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community are located within the Phoenix metropolitan area. While most of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is located near Tucson, Arizona, one of their five communities is in Guadalupe, a Phoenix suburb near Tempe.
There are 22 federally-recognized tribes in the state. American Indians and Alaska Natives make up 5.3 percent of the state’s population.
“We have treaty responsibilities to make sure that we are working together,” he said. “Number one, we want to help Indian Country unlock their economic potential.”
Gallego’s platform for Indian Country includes creating less federal oversight when it comes to lands managed by Native nations.
“Indian Country is sophisticated enough. They can make decisions for themselves,” he said. “They shouldn't have to keep coming back for permission for us for them to do things with their land that they want to do.”
He also likes to see more funding for housing, public safety, infrastructure and Indian Health Service.
“We need housing, and it's not being built fast enough. We're not giving the funds fast enough to build,” Gallego said. “Schools, is another one. If you're on the BIE waiting list to have your school rebuilt, it's going to take forever.”
Historically, issues in Indian Country have been fairly bipartisan but currently there is no Democratic Indigenous senator in Congress. Former U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, a Republican, was elected in November and is the only Indigenous member of the Senate.
“I will do my best to represent Indian Country,” Gallego said.
Native vote in Arizona
One of the most influential voting blocs in Arizona are Native American voters. In Navajo County, over half resides on the sovereign lands of the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache. It was also the only county that gained voters in the 2022 midterm election.
The number of voters increased from the 2020 presidential election year, a huge feat considering that most areas of the country see a decline in people heading to the polls.
“I think for a long time, Native voters in Arizona packed a lot of punch,” Jaynie Parrish, executive director of the Navajo County Democrats, said. “They never understood the power of Native voters or they never gave it enough credit.”
This has all changed over the last few years as it has become apparent how powerful the Native vote is. This voting bloc, which in Arizona overwhelmingly votes blue, carried President Joe Biden to win the state in 2020.
“I always tell people, it just didn't start in 2020. It's been a long legacy of leaders going back to the 80s that have worked and worked. Organizers that have worked and worked,” Parrish said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola also credit Native voters for their wins in Alaska. Other states where the Native vote is powerful are Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada, according to Jacqueline De León, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in a panel last fall.
On the grounds, Parrish has heard that Indigenous voters and volunteers don’t agree with Sinema’s actions.
“Some of the matriarchs did express disappointment in a lot of her recent behaviors and decisions,” Parrish said. “However, that didn't stop them from doing the work.”
“That's not going to deter us from still voting and making sure that we have good Democrats working for us,” she added.
Sinema helped to secure $166,062 in the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill for San Carlos Apache Tribe to clean up brownfield sites that pose an environmental and public health risk. She also co-signed a letter requesting a major disaster declaration for the Havasupai Tribe. Shortly after President Biden signed the declaration allowing the tribe to qualify for funding.
Sinema was elected in 2018 and is up for reelection in 2024. Senators serve six-year terms. She has yet to state whether or not she will run. In the general election, the Independent senator will face both a Republican and Democratic nominee should she seek reelection.
In the first day, the Gallego campaign raised over a million dollars with more than 27,000 donations flooding in. His campaign broke a record previously held by Sen. Mark Kelly, the other Arizona Senate member, for money raised in a single day.
By June of 2022, Kelly had raised over $50 million, none of the republican candidates were even close to that. If Gallego’s Senate campaign is anything like Kelly’s, fundraising won’t be an issue.
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