Wisconsin Native Vote is knocking on doors, mailing postcards and buying highway billboards in a push to turn out the state's more than 70,000 Native people of voting age, organizers say, as tribal communities increasingly see their ballots as a lever that can swing statewide races. The effort comes as Wisconsin's gubernatorial contest between Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley remains closely contested, with organizers and tribal elders arguing that Indigenous turnout could be decisive.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Native Vote volunteers have mailed 2,600 handwritten postcards to Native voters who cast ballots in 2022 but not 2024, in addition to knocking on doors and collecting pledges to vote. The organization is also increasing its social media outreach and buying advertising along Interstate 43 in Milwaukee, per the same report. Anne Egan-Waukau, a Menominee tribal member who works for the group in the Milwaukee area, is among those leading that outreach, the newspaper reports.
The push follows data showing real movement at the ballot box. Voter turnout between the 2023 and 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court elections increased 63% in both Red Cliff and Bad River and 81% in Menominee, according to Native News Online. Looking further back, Menominee Nation's turnout rose 220% between 2019 and 2025, the outlet reported — a separate comparison window that underscores just how much engagement has shifted over a longer stretch of elections.
Why Organizers Say Every Vote Counts
Wisconsin Native Vote organizer Gloria Wiggins said voter turnout in Native communities has been on the rise in recent years, according to ICT News. Wiggins pointed to housing, clean water, mental-health services, substance-abuse treatment and sovereignty as the issues driving people to the polls, telling the outlet, “Housing, clean water, mental health services. Substance abuse is an issue — treatment is not readily available. And sovereignty.” She added that younger voters in particular sometimes need convincing that their ballots matter, saying, “The younger generation feels that their vote does not matter.”
Molly Miller, a Mohican elder, has urged Indigenous voters across Wisconsin to turn out in upcoming elections, according to the Journal Sentinel, saying that Native votes count and that voting affects state issues including mining, wild ricing and the environment. Wisconsin Native Vote operates as part of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Conservation Voters and, per WXPR, does not endorse candidates — it focuses on voter education and registration instead.
Pow Wow and Fashion Show Aim to Reach Voters Where They Are
Part of that education effort has taken the shape of cultural gatherings. Wisconsin Native Vote organized a Pow Wow the Vote event at the Forest County Potawatomi Community Center in northeast Wisconsin earlier in October, the Journal Sentinel reports, and the group has scheduled an Indigenous fashion show for October 30 in Milwaukee. That show is set to begin at 6 p.m. and will feature six Wisconsin-based Native designers and 60 models wearing clothing themed around civic engagement, voting and cultural responsibility, according to the newspaper's reporting.
Wisconsin's elections website confirms that tribal IDs can serve as voter identification, noting that a tribal ID card issued by a federally recognized Native American tribe residing in Wisconsin is acceptable for voting, per the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That detail matters for organizers trying to clear practical hurdles to the ballot box, especially in communities where paperwork and travel to polling places can complicate turnout.
Not a Monolithic Bloc, but a Potential Swing Factor
Indigenous voters are not a monolithic voting bloc, the Journal Sentinel notes, and most tribal governments are careful not to endorse candidates, with some donating almost equal amounts to both campaigns when they give at all. Still, preliminary 2024 data generally showed greater Democratic support as a state's Native American population increased, according to the Native American Rights Fund, which cautioned that “Native voters are not a monolith.”
The newspaper's reporting ties that complexity to recent history: Indigenous voters were credited with helping clinch Joe Biden's 2020 victories in both Wisconsin and Arizona, where Biden won by just over 20,000 votes and just over 10,000 votes, respectively. Wisconsin is home to about 70,000 Native voters, while Arizona has roughly 310,000, according to the same report — margins thin enough that organizers argue turnout swings in either state can decide an election.
Casino Fight and Public Lands Divide the Candidates
Tribal priorities also intersect with specific policy fights shaping this year's governor's race. Tiffany has supported mining and logging expansion in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, a position tribes have opposed, the Journal Sentinel reports, while counties in northern Wisconsin that vote Democratic are home to Ojibwe and Menominee reservations. Menominee County has voted overwhelmingly for Democrats for decades, according to the same reporting.
Both Tiffany and Crowley oppose the Menominee tribe's proposed Kenosha casino project, the newspaper reports, though for different reasons: Tiffany has said he does not want to expand gaming in Wisconsin, while Crowley has said the project would divert money from the Potawatomi Casino & Hotel in Milwaukee. That concern echoes the Forest County Potawatomi Community's own opposition, which jsonline.com reports stems from the tribe's belief that the Kenosha project would compete for business with its own Milwaukee casino. Menominee tribal officials, meanwhile, expressed optimism in 2025 that the Trump administration would help advance the project by reducing federal administrative hurdles, according to that same report. Federal reviewers at the Bureau of Indian Affairs concluded the Kenosha project would not significantly affect the environment and met federal and state air-quality standards, and that the Menominee Indian Tribe owns 59 acres across four parcels in Kenosha near Interstate 94.
Beyond the casino dispute, the Journal Sentinel reports that tribes in Wisconsin and across the country have worked with and supported Republicans, especially on economic issues, even as the Trump administration has angered some Indigenous voters with proposed budget cuts, opposition to diversity initiatives, and challenges to birthright citizenship. The administration has also hailed Christopher Columbus while disparaging Indigenous Peoples' Day, according to the same reporting — friction points that organizers say are part of what is pushing more Native voters to engage this cycle.
A Different Picture in Rural Alaska
Not every state is seeing the same surge. In Alaska's 2024 general election, turnout averaged below 40% in the four legislative districts where Alaska Native people make up a majority, compared with statewide turnout above 55%, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The gap has persisted across recent cycles: in 2022, turnout averaged 33% in those rural districts versus 44% statewide, and in this year's August primary, turnout in the four rural districts averaged 20% against 27% statewide, the paper reported. The contrast underscores how organizing capacity and local barriers can produce very different outcomes even among Native communities facing similar national political currents.
