In the traditionally Democrat-voting Navajo Nation, bread-and-butter issues swung more voters toward the GOP in 2024.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.—With a population of more than 165,000 people, the Navajo Nation is the largest indigenous reservation in the United States, occupying 16 million acres, about the size of West Virginia.
It is a land of stunning desert beauty, with majestic mountains, sandstone canyons and red-rock formations, and highways that stretch for miles with the rising and setting sun.
The Navajo people keep their native traditions, even as they embrace a modern retail economy and a presidential form of government.
They have many of the same aspirations of education and material success, and they face the same social issues as the rest of the country: poverty, drug abuse, and broken families.
Although not fundamentally partisan, the Navajo tend to vote for Democratic Party candidates because they believe they best serve the community’s interests.
Many also believe that voting in elections and working with the federal government can help tribal communities grow and prosper.
In 2020, there were 67,000 eligible Navajo voters, the vast majority of whom supported Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, who won Arizona by just over 10,000 votes.
In the 2024 election, Navajo support for Republican nominee Donald Trump increased, a sign of what some tribal leaders across the country see as a conservative shift in Native American voting patterns.
An Edison Research exit poll showed that the Native American vote was about 65 percent in Trump’s favor nationwide.
However, a Native News Online poll found that support was around 51 percent in the 2024 presidential election.
According to the same poll, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harrisreceived 48 percent of the vote.
Thirty-one percent of participants identified as Democrats, 28 percent as Republicans, and 6 percent as other.
Both presidential candidates campaigned heavily in Arizona, a swing state with a 5.2 percent Native American population.
Alastair Lee Bitsoi, staff writer for the Navajo Nation Office of President Buu Nygren, said there was a noticeable uptick in support for Trump among Navajo voters this year.
