WASHINGTON —
Native Americans comprise 3.4% of the U.S. population but hold only 0.07% of all elected offices. In 2020, a record-breaking six Native Americans were elected to Congress. This year, nine Native Americans, including four incumbents, are vying for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES:
Incumbent Josh Brecheen (Choctaw), Oklahoma, 2nd District
Brecheen is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Budget Committee. He previously served in the Oklahoma Senate, where he limited himself to an eight-year term.
In an editorial for the McCarville Report following a 2023 trip to the U.S. border with Mexico, Brecheen cited nearly 4.7 million illegal crossings since 2020 and record levels of drug and human trafficking. He argues that policy changes, including halting border wall construction and revising federal immigration laws, have weakened border security.
Brecheen would like to complete the border wall and implement advanced security technology, including ground sensors, to improve surveillance.
He prioritizes a strong military and supports gun rights. He opposes abortion and defunding the police.
On financial issues, he pushes for budget cuts to reduce inflation and the national debt, and he says he is committed to protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Sharon Clahchischilliage (Navajo), New Mexico, 3rd District
Clahchischilliage currently serves on the New Mexico Public Education Commission and is running against the incumbent Democrat, Teresa Fernandez.
The district includes most of northern New Mexico and some of the eastern part of the state. Her district holds large fossil fuel and mineral reserves, which Clahchischilliage says are vital to economic development.
“It’s time for Congress to hear a voice like mine, someone who has served our country, taught in the classroom, raised on the family farm and fought against the radicals in Santa Fe,” she told the Albuquerque Journal in September. “From energy production to protecting the farmers, ranchers and herders, New Mexicans need someone who has lived their experiences, not tell them how to live.”
Clahchischilliage previously served in the state Legislature, supporting water rights and investments in infrastructure, education and economic development. During a candidate forum October 7 in Santa Fe, she said she does not believe in climate change.
“The earth is cleansing itself,” she said.
She opposes gun safety laws and believes the government should focus more on crime involving the use of guns rather than on the weapons themselves.
Incumbent Tom Cole (Chickasaw), Oklahoma, 4th District
Cole was elected to Congress in 2002 and is serving his 10th term. He is the longest-serving Native American lawmaker in House history.
In April, he became the first Native American to chair the House Appropriations Committee.
“States and the federal government must work with Native Americans to maintain the integrity of their heritage, culture, and rights,” Cole wrote in his weekly column shortly after being named. “At the same time, the federal government must uphold its constitutional oath to tribes to provide basic resources such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, and law enforcement, among many others, in Indian Country.”
He says veterans’ services, Social Security reform and border security are his top priorities.
In the final days of his campaign, Cole led a bipartisan delegation to the Middle East to strengthen alliances and deepen collaboration on security challenges. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials briefed the group on current military operations and hostage rescue efforts.
Yvette Herrell (Cherokee), New Mexico, 2nd District
Herrell is challenging Democratic incumbent Gabe Vasquez in a district that includes a chunk of the southern border with Mexico.
A former U.S. representative for this district from 2021 to 2023, she favors restarting construction of the border wall and ending so-called “catch and release” policies that hold migrants in detention rather than allowing them into the community while they wait for their hearings.
Endorsed by the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association and the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, she advocates “defending” rather than “defunding” police. Herrell strongly supports Second Amendment gun rights and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
Herrell says she prioritizes economic growth through reduced regulation, lower energy prices and increased domestic oil and gas production, which, in part, could fund state education programs. She opposes abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES
Dennis Baker (Muscogee of Euchee descent), Oklahoma, 1st District
Baker is an attorney and former FBI special agent whose platform focuses on worker rights. He supports raising the federal minimum wage, protecting and expanding labor unions and strengthening worker protections.
Baker says he was moved to run for political office after watching the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I saw the results of political extremism and said, you know, that’s not my values. I don’t think it’s America’s values,” he told Tulsa’s FOX23 News in July.
Baker opposes any state-level challenges to tribal authority. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that state governments have the authority to prosecute certain cases on tribal lands. Baker opposes any state-level challenges to the authority of 39 recognized tribes in Oklahoma.
Baker also supports reproductive rights and marriage equality.
Incumbent Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk), Kansas, 3rd District
Davids was elected to represent Kansas’ 3rd District in 2018, one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress — the other was Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna), representing New Mexico’s 1st District and currently U.S. secretary of the interior.
Davids has a background as a lawyer and former mixed martial arts fighter. Her career in Washington has focused on reducing living costs for families, promoting economic growth and advocating for government accountability.
She worked with Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which addressed domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking She and Cole also introduced the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2024, a bill that, if passed, would create a commission to investigate the federal Indian boarding school system and recommend actions to promote the healing of survivors and descendants.
In her district, Davids secured more than $1.5 billion in federal funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve the state’s infrastructure.
Incumbent Mary Peltola (Yup’ik), Alaska, District at Large
Peltola grew up in towns along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska. She began her political career early. In 1998, at age 24, she won a seat in the state House of Representatives, the first Alaska Native to serve in that position. In 2022, she won Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House, and just days after being sworn in, she introduced a bill establishing an office of food security within the Department of Veterans Affairs, which passed in the House with strong bipartisan support.
A strong advocate for Alaska Natives, her top concerns are subsistence fishing, food security, infrastructure and the impact of climate change.
She also worries about out-migration from her state.
“We are seeing this negative trend of our young people leaving and people not moving to Alaska,” Peltola told Alaska Public Media on October 30. “I think that we really need to be talking more and finding more solutions on food security, on shipping costs, on energy costs.”
Madison Horn (Cherokee), Oklahoma, 5th District
Horn is running for a seat in Congress for the second time. In 2022, she lost her bid for a U.S. Senate seat. This year, she is looking to unseat House Republican incumbent Stephanie Bice.
Her background is in cybersecurity and national security. She was a founding member of Siemens Energy’s global cyber practice and later CEO of Critical Fault, an Oklahoma-based cybersecurity firm whose logo is “paranoid with a purpose.”
In a recent post on X, Horn noted that China, Russia and Iran are advancing their cyber capabilities and building alliances to threaten U.S. security. Her key concerns include a digital Cold War with China over economic security and the risks of quantum computing to current encryption systems.
“We need technical expertise and with a strategic vision to craft modern policies that enhance American resilience against evolving threats,” she said.
Jonathan Nez (Navajo), Arizona, 2nd District
Nez began his political career as the vice president of the Shonto Chapter, one of the 110 local, semi-self-autonomous districts on the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the U.S. Later, he served on the Navajo Nation council, and in 2015 was elected the Nation’s vice president and served until 2023.
He steered Navajos through the COVID-19 pandemic and organized a vaccination campaign through which 70% of Navajo citizens were vaccinated.
Nez says his policy priorities include protecting voting rights, advancing border security and immigration reform, ensuring water security and environmental sustainability in the face of climate change, and upholding reproductive rights and marriage equality as matters of individual autonomy.