As the 2024 election hurtles toward us, the political canvassing in Arizona is seeing an intensified focus on Native American voters, with both former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris orchestrating extensive outreach campaigns. With Arizona's 22 tribes accounting for a significant half a million individuals, these strategies could spell a pivotal sway in electoral outcomes.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the urgency for engaging with these communities is underscored by the notably high Native American voter turnout in the 2020 elections, where nearly 90% voted in favor of President Biden, tipping the scales in the state. Despite party loyalties being more divided this cycle, Trump and Harris campaigns relentlessly pursue the Native vote, the former president and the vice president are neck and neck in polls, understanding its growing influence, making no secret of their desire to harness this growing influence.
The efforts to mobilize Native American voters are taking concrete forms, with the Harris-Walz campaign setting up a tribal organizing team and Trump mobilizing his so-called Trump Force 47 volunteers, particularly in the populous Navajo Nation. "If you can fire them up, if you can encourage them that you’re going to be there to support them and be willing to help them, they’re going to come out to vote," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told FOX 10 Phoenix. Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz is expected to visit the Gila River reservation on Wednesday, indicating the level of engagement the campaigns are undertaking.
But the challenges are manifold, access to voting for many Native Americans in rural areas can be difficult, some without birth certificates, and there exists a generational divide in voting enthusiasm, with tribal elders remembering the 1948 fight for suffrage and younger generations often showing signs of voter apathy. "It’s about education. Understanding how their one vote can impact an election and gradually this year, it's starting to kind of grow and percolate. Have we hit the max of our capability? No. I think we’re just touching the edges," June Shorthair, Civic Engagement Coordinator for the Phoenix Indian Center, noted to FOX 10 Phoenix. As these campaigns delve into the Native communities court these voters, issues such as water rights, the cost of living, and tribal sovereignty are at the forefront of concerns that are expected to be addressed by the candidates.
Further revealing the importance of indigenous votes in this battleground state, My Herald Review reports that the Harris-Walz campaign surrogates have met with several tribes recently to engage on these pressing issues, demonstrating a battleground where each vote is fiercely contested, candidates press the flesh and the politics of promise is the dance of the day in the Arizona sun.
