This week, more than 500 Indigenous leaders, activists, organizers, allies and political candidates for local, state and federal races, met for the Native Power Building Summit in Scottsdale. “Land, Culture, Democracy” was this year's theme, and focused on fighting for Indigenous futures.
Tuesday’s daylong gathering was hosted by Advance Native Political Leadership, a national Indigenous-led organization that trains and gives tools to candidates running for public office. It also conducts data and research.
“Since 2018, we have broken records every single year,” said Jordan James Harvill, the group’s national program director. “We’ve seen an 83% increase in the number of Native candidates. We’re at 183 as of this election cycle.”
More than half are Indigenous women, while a third are first-time candidates.
“They’ve never ran for office before,” added Harvill, who is Cherokee and Choctaw, “and a whole host of incumbents that are running to protect their seats in some of the most competitive districts in the country.”
More than 300 Native Americans currently hold public office in local, state and federal jurisdictions, but in order to achieve parity, Harvill stated there needs to be 17,000 of these elected officials nationwide.
