Gov. Tim Walz Rallies with Diné Voters in Window Rock

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By Shaun Griswold

October 26, 2024

 Navajo votes could be key to swing Arizona again to Democrats

Native Vote 2024. WINDOW ROCK (NAVJAO NATION) — The path to the White House took a turn onto a tribal road where Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz gave a rally speech to voters on the Navajo Nation.

“I understand that it is a privilege to be standing here on Navajo land,” Walz said. “I am grateful that you would see fit to bring me here as we talk about and I try to ask, and earn your vote to make Kamala Harris president of the United States.”

Walz flew into Gallup, New Mexico on Saturday afternoon and quickly drove with his motorcade west into Arizona. People parked along the route mostly waved signs of support. The Walz motorcade drove by a small group of supporters for Republican Donald Trump as they waved signs from the side of the road at the Arizona border. People protested with demands for a ceasefire in Gaza from the sidewalk closer to where the event was hosted at the Window Rock Tribal Park and Veterans Memorial.

When Walz arrived at the event, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland hit the final notes on her speech that reminded Native voters in Arizona that their vote is important enough to get Harris and Walz into the White House. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Navajo Nation President Buu Bygren also spoke at the rally.

In Window Rock, Walz stood on a podium set up in front of the iconic rock formation that bears the name of the Navajo Nation capital. People in the crowd were mostly Arizona voters, with some from New Mexico just miles away.

Shannon Notah was in the crowd holding a sign that read, “Yiiyah Man” a Diné term that translates into English as bad man. On the right side next to the phrase was a silhouette of Donald Trump.

Notah early voted in Arizona, with ease she said, and wants a Harris administration to expand public safety on tribal nations.

“I grew up in a family where family members were brutally murdered. My oldest sister didn't receive justice,” she said. “I would like to see more done for the women that go missing, Indigenous people that go missing. I want more done for them.”

Walz proclaimed that a Harris administration would best serve the needs of Native American people, including the public safety concerns that Notah discussed.

“I recognize the promises this country has made to Indigenous peoples. We will safeguard and strengthen the bonds within nations and uphold our trust and treat obligations,” Walz said. “To honor tribal sovereignty, promote tribal consultation and ensure tribal self determination across this country.”

His speech was just over 27 minutes. 

Walz discussed rural health care investments, expanding resources for missing and murdered Indigenous people, support for military veterans and reviving access to reproductive services for women across the country.

The visit to the Navajo Nation on the Arizona side is another key example of the importance that Native voters have in the swing state. In 2020, this voting bloc lifted President Joe Biden to win the state’s electoral votes. Harris and Walz want to sustain and grow Native voter participation. The rally on the Navajo Nation comes weeks after more than $300,000 was spent on advertisements targeting Native voters nationwide.

“If tribal nations are doing well and your kids are doing well, then the rest of the country will do just fine,” Walz said.

He reminded the people in Window Rock that as governor of Minnesota he has done this work with the 11 tribal nations in the state. His lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan is from the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, he told the crowd, and reminded them that if he becomes vice president she will serve as the first female Native American governor in U.S. history.

Polls show Harris and Trump at a near dead heat in the state. The margin of error in polling indicates that tribal voters could swing the election for either candidate. Native American voters are also influential in down ballot races for Congress. 

Former Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez is running to unseat Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) for the second congressional district seat in the state. He spoke before Walz, and in return the vice presidential candidate later reminded the crowd to go out and vote for Nez. Polls are also showing Nez is neck and neck with the incumbent. He said it is due to getting Native people to the polls.

"Over 22 percent of the voting population in this district are Native American,” Nez told Native News Online moments after Walz gave him a show of support. “No Indigenous person has ever been elected from the state of Arizona to Congress until now. Our neighbors in New Mexico did that with Deb Haaland and now she's the Secretary of the Interior, and I think we will show the strength of the Native vote once again in this election.”

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