Native Americans in United States elections
[1] After a long history of fighting against voting rights restrictions, Native Americans now play an increasingly integral part in United States elections.
One example is when the Arizona Supreme Court denied citizenship and suffrage to Native Americans living on reservations, arguing that they were under federal not state jurisdiction.
Moreover, up until 1962 New Mexico continued suppressing indigenous voting rights on the basis that Native Americans living on reservations were not residents of the state.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled that Indians were incapable of being good citizens because of their illiteracy and separation from American society.
Many individual states still denied suffrage to Native Americans because, they argued, they lived on federal lands, did not pay real estate tax, and participated in tribal elections, among other reasons.
A 1928 Arizona state court ruling, Porter v. Hall, claimed Native Americans were not competent enough to vote.
[8] After the 1920s, which saw the passage of the 19th amendment (guaranteeing women's suffrage) and the Snyder Act, activism for including Native female voices continued.
[9] Today, Native women are shown to generally play a more active role in politics than their male counterparts.
Surveys and polls alike show that Native women demonstrate a greater sense of civic duty.
Because of this history, Native Americans feel a greater sense of trust towards their respective tribes than to the United States.
[3] Voter turnout for all minority groups, including Native Americans, is much lower than the majority white population in the United States.
[17] Voter registration drives were also an effective method to increase non-tribal political participation among Native Americans.
Despite a lack of serious partisanship, they are even less likely than other ethnic groups to vote for a "split ticket", a trait they share with other minority voters as well.
[13][21] What is known is that Natives likely developed great support for the Democratic Party, as with African Americans, because of their inclusion and participation in New Deal programs.
[13] More recent exit polls show that Natives had initially been more willing to break for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, which is an apparent increase from four years prior, when Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate.
[24] Republican and conservative politics tends to fare better with Natives in more mixed settings, namely more rural precincts, as seen in elections as recent as 2020.
[25][26] In 2024, Native Americans broke heavily towards Trump, voting for him by a margin of 65% to 34% against his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
Exit polls and research over time illustrate that Natives tend to be political moderates and hold traditional values.
[21][29] New Mexico studies showed, for example, that Native voters there value "egalitarian, liberal care for the less fortunate", but also "self-determination and libertarianism".
Research that dates back to 1997 suggests that Natives had potential as swing voters in what were at the time deemed fairly equal in Democratic and Republican registration, such as Montana.
[2] In addition to not being likely to "split ticket" vote, Natives have also proven to be helpful in swinging state elections over to Democrats.
Political research attributes the Native vote as a major factor in the electing Democratic senators such as James E. Murray of Montana in 1954, George McGovern of South Dakota in 1962, and Maria Cantwell of Washington in 2000 (who still holds office, as of 2024).
[22] In recent years, though, a general trend of increase in Native American representation has been evident, particularly in the legislative branch and in local offices.
