With less than three weeks left before the presidential election, both parties are trying to turn out tribal voters in the swing state of Arizona with all sorts of ads.
Republicans are targeting Navajos with radio ads like this one.
It features Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda and former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer. He believes “we’ve been left behind,” adding that “rising prices and broken promises have hurt our families the most, but you will not be forgotten” by Republican candidates up and down the ticket.
The Trump campaign shared that its strategy has centered around meeting with voters throughout the Navajo Nation on a weekly basis, while staff and volunteers continue outreach at flea markets, fairs, rodeos, churches and chapter houses.
Halee Dobbins, the RNC’s communications director for Arizona and Nevada, wrote that “Team Trump in Arizona” is “listening to how Kamala Harris and Arizona Democrats have made life harder for Native American families.”
She added that former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance are “committed to offering real solutions that address these concerns, from restoring our energy dominance, lowering inflation, and supporting our law enforcement.”
“We know the top concerns for many Native Americans today include the rising costs of goods and services, the safety and protection of women, and energy independence,” Dobbins wrote in a statement. “Native Americans in Arizona and across our nation need President Trump more than ever before and are eager for a return to his leadership in the White House.”
Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign is running this ad on tribal radio and TV stations with a clip from Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent rally at the Rawhide Event Center on the Gila River Indian Community on Oct. 10.
“We must honor tribal sovereignty, embrace our trust and treaty obligations, and ensure tribal self-determination,” Harris said. “This will be a very tight race until the very end. We will win.”
Though President Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 with help from a bloc of Indigenous voters, Democrats aren’t taking them for granted four years later.
Earlier this week, the DNC announced a six-figure ad campaign on Indigenous Peoples Day to reach Native voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska.
Print ads will appear locally in several Native-owned publications, like the Navajo Times, Navajo-Hopi Observer and White Mountain Independent, among others. The campaign also distributed civic engagement and voter protection guides in seven Indigenous languages, including Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Zuni and Paiute.
Jade Begay is Navajo and the Native American engagement director for the Harris-Walz campaign. She recently explained on a press call, launching Native Americans for Harris-Walz, that the campaign is mobilizing tribal populations in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.
But the Grand Canyon State arguably tops their list. They’ll hire up to 31 community organizers before Election Day to work on tribal lands all across Arizona.
“Our team on the ground is not taking a single vote for granted, and we are going to continue to put in the work necessary to reach Native folks where they are and let them know the stakes of this critical election,” Begay said. “The choice for Native Americans is clear. In 2020, we helped defeat Donald Trump once, and this November, we will stand with Vice President Harris and make Donald Trump a loser once again."
