Navajos to elect new leader in November after President Buu Nygren loses primary

Tuesday was primary Election Day not only in Arizona — but across the Navajo Nation, which encompasses Utah and New Mexico. The tribe’s youngest-ever sitting president, Buu Nygren, will not be moving on to the general.

Before midnight, the tribal radio station KTNN — known in these parts as the “Voice of the Navajo Nation” — called the 16-candidate race. Radio host “Navajo Bob” Sandoval read the unofficial score from the 110 polling places.

Farmington attorney Justin Jones came in third — behind Jonathan Nez and Buu Nygren — during the 2022 primary. This time, Jones and sitting Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley beat out the incumbent president, who has faced a slew of ethics violations and corruption allegations.

Jones earned the most votes: 15,039.

That’s close to a third of all ballots cast in this high-profile race. Curley followed Jones with 8,546 votes. Nygren trailed her by 1,136 supporters. He ended up getting 7,410 votes — finishing third within the crowded field.

According to the Navajo Election Administration, Nygren secured 5,468 fewer votes than he did four years ago. Still, this cycle’s top-three placers — Jones, Curley and Nygren — won over almost two-thirds of all voters.

In a social media post, Nygren congratulated his challengers, writing “Your victories reflect the trust that the Navajo people have placed in your leadership, your vision, and your commitment to serving our Nation.”

Now, as the primary’s top vote-getters, Jones and Curley will soon pick their VP running mates before November. If elected, Curley would break barriers by becoming the first Diné female president.

Hear Gabriel Pietrorazio with host Mark Brodie on The Show

Listen • 7:19

Full conversation from The Show

MARK BRODIE: Navajo Nation voters will elect a new president this fall after the incumbent Buu Nygren failed to make it out of this week’s primary. Nygren has faced a series of scandals during his time in office, and now two other candidates will move on to November’s general election. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has been following this and joins me now to talk more about it. Gabe, good morning.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Good morning, Mark.

MARK BRODIE: So, let’s start with reminding everybody what’s been going on with Buu Nygren. This has not been a smooth term for him.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: It hasn’t been smooth, to say the least. He was the youngest elected president of the Navajo Nation. And pretty much from the outset, there were some challenges, particularly surrounding ZenniHome, which was a Mesa-based modular home manufacturing company that has since gone bankrupt. There was a purchase order that was completed with the nation using ARPA money, federal money from COVID relief, and essentially, the contract was not fulfilled.

MARK BRODIE: The houses never got built.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: The houses were partially — some of them were partially built but never delivered. And there was an outstanding $24 million that is still under review as to what happened, where is that going. There may be federal people involved, investigators, it’s not public. But there is a lot of people looking into this.

Navajo Nation Council has also had its series of hearings, investigatory hearings, subpoenaing members — not just Nygren, but his administration — to try to unpack what has happened there.

In addition to that, there were also allegations of misuse of public funds and his official capacity as the president. This is through a special ethics complaint that was filed by a special prosecutor who was hired by the Navajo Nation Council and has alleged not just Nygren but other members of his cabinet had essentially done things improperly with their rights and role as public office, essentially.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so he was running, despite all that, for reelection for another term. There were a lot of candidates, like 15 or 16 candidates running, and it’s an open primary there, there are a lot of candidates. He came in third out of all of those. The top two make it to the general. Who are the top two?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: So, the top vote-getter was Justin Jones. He’s a Farmington attorney. He used to work for BHP, the coal company that owned a mine out in New Mexico. He was their government relations manager. And he had earned over 15,000 votes this cycle. Last cycle, he actually came in third place. Pretty much nearly doubled the amount of votes that he had gained from four years ago. Here’s a little bit of what Jones had to say after the victory.

JUSTIN JONES: It’s about you. It’s about the Navajo Nation. … I come second. …

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: And so, Jones basically has really come out as one of the most vocal opponents to Nygren and the scandals and accusations that have surrounded his administration.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so he came in first. The second candidate will also move on to the general election. She is more of a political insider, it sounds like, on the Navajo Nation. Is that fair?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: That’s correct, yeah. She is currently the sitting Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley. She came in second place, she had gathered 8,500 votes, and she’s on track, if she’s elected, she’d be the first Diné female president in the Nation’s history. And this is what she had to say.

CRYSTALYNE CURLEY: This campaign is not to separate the people. This campaign is to unify our people. Because we are the largest nation in Indian Country and in the world. We need to be united.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: And part of her message has been leaning into the importance of the matriarchy, because the Diné society is centered around matrilineal relationships and the clans and the kinships. And so is reverence for women, for the matriarchs, for the mothers. She’s focused a lot on MMIP, which is Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and particularly an issue affecting women as well.

MARK BRODIE: So, what kinds of issues are folks expecting to hear about between now and the November general election? What do Curley and Jones seem to be discussing? How do they contrast each other?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Yeah, I think everyday living, basic things like roads, infrastructure, water — all these things that make life on the reservation better. How do we improve job opportunities? How do we bring our people back home? These are a lot of the things that they find commonality in. I don’t think there’s necessarily too much difference per se, in their campaign —

MARK BRODIE: In terms of policy.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: In the policies in a way. It’s a lot of the same things they’re talking about. And something they both kind of see eye-to-eye on also is kind of figuring out what happened with the Nygren administration, kind of bringing attention to the scandals and allegations and leading to the ouster essentially of Nygren.

Curley was also really vocal, she was the one who sought to remove him from office through the council, and has led lawsuits against Nygren personally through the nation’s courts in that respect.

MARK BRODIE: Gabe, does it seem as though depending on — you mentioned that both Jones and Curley have similar views on a lot of the policy issues — do they kind of line up on policy with Nygren? Is there going to be a big shift in policy, regardless of which one wins now, from where the Nation has been for the last three and a half years?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: I think Curley has more of a perspective on trying to protect the environment, it seems. She focuses a lot on the pressing issues like Chaco and Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante and protecting sacred sites and things of that nature. And I think that slightly deviates from Jones, who worked for the BHP coal company as their senior government relations manager.

But I think on the whole, this is an election about personality — and personalities in this case — of who is best suited to lead in the absence of Nygren, who is the incumbent that has been effectively primaried out of this race.

MARK BRODIE: And very briefly, has Nygren said if he plans to endorse one of the other candidates before November?

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: We haven’t heard anything like that. He came out and part of his concession talked about congratulating both the candidates, and he said that basically the Navajo people, their voice has been heard through their vote, and that they were entrusted with these two potentially leading in his absence.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio. Gabe, thanks so much, as always.

GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Thanks for having me.

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