PRESS RELEASES

ADVANCE NATIVE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ACTION FUND
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 17, 2022

MEDIA CONTACT:
Pam Bradshaw
pam@advancenativepl.org
401-808-9332

Advance Native Political Leadership Releases Second Round of National Endorsement Slate of Native American Candidates Ahead of 2022 Midterms

Advance has released the first national slate of now 31 Native candidates up and down the ballot for the 2022 midterm election.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund (Advance) is making history by releasing its second round of endorsements for its national slate of Native American candidates spanning local, state, and federal offices, adding 15 new candidates for a total of 31 endorsed.

More than 142 Native American candidates made the leap to run for office during the 2022 midterm elections, the highest on record. To date, there are less than 200 Native Americans holding elected office in the United States, with more than 17,000 needed to reach representational parity in elected office based on population.

The following candidates were selected for Advance’s inaugural slate:

FEDERAL

Charles Graham (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina) – U.S. House of Representatives, North Carolina District 9
Mary Peltola* (Yup’ik) – U.S. House of Representatives, Alaska At-Large
Mercedes Krause (Oglala Lakota) – U.S. House of Representatives, Nevada District 2
Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) – U.S. House of Representatives, Kansas District 3
Taysha DeVaughan* (Comanche Nation of Oklahoma) – U.S House of Representatives, Virginia District 9

STATE

Alan Roy (White Earth Ojibwe) – Minnesota State Senate, District 2
Alicia Kozlowski (Ojibwe-Mexicana) – Minnesota State House of Representatives, District 8B
Andi LeBeau* (Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne River Sioux) – Wyoming State House of Representatives, District 33
Barbara Bessette* (Chippewa-Cree) – Montana State House of Representatives, District 24
Charlotte Little (San Felipe Pueblo) – New Mexico House of Representatives, District 68
Chris Stearns (Diné) – Washington State House of Representatives, District 47 – Position 2
Christina Haswood (Diné) – Kansas State House of Representatives, District 10
Claudia Kauffman (Nez Perce) – Washington State Senate, District 47
Davina Smith* (Diné) – Utah State House of Representatives, District 69
Derrick J. Lente* (Pueblo of Sandia) – New Mexico State House of Representatives, District 65
Donavon Hawk* (Crow and Crow Creek Sioux) – Montana State House of Representatives, District 76
Erika Bailey-Johnson* (Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians) – Minnesota State House of Representatives, District 2B
Heather Keeler (Yankton Sioux and Eastern Shoshone) – Minnesota State House of Representatives, District 4A
Jamie Becker-Finn* (Leech Lake Ojibwe) – Minnesota State House of Representatives, District 40B
Lillian Jones* (Arikara and Hidatsa)- North Dakota State House of Representatives, District 41
Lisa Finley-DeVille* (MNA Nation) – North Dakota State House of Representatives, District 4A
Mary Kunesh (Standing Rock Sioux) – Minnesota State Senate, District 39
Maxine Dibert* (Koyukon Athabascan) – Alaska State House of Representatives, District 31
Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Ojibwe) – Lt. Governor of Minnesota
Ruth Anna Buffalo (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation) – North Dakota State House of Representatives, District 27
Shane A. Morigeau* (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation) – Montana State Senate, District 48
Shea Backus (Cherokee) – Nevada State Assembly, District 37
Tawna Sanchez* (Shoshone-Bannock, Ute, and Carrizo) – Oregon State House of Representatives, District 43

LOCAL

Ceyshe Napa (Diné) – Phoenix Union High School District, Ward 4
Songtree Pioche (Taos Pueblo and Oglala Lakota) – New Mexico Magistrate Judge, San Juan Division 1
Zachariah (Zac) George* (Diné) – San Juan, NM County Commission District 2

*Note: Asterisk denotes new endorsements.

The Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund Inaugural Endorsement Committee is made up of Native leaders who represent the breadth of political power in Indian Country: Chaired by Advance Co-Founders Anathea Chino (Acoma Pueblo) and Chrissie Castro (Diné and Chicana) and members Holly Cook Macarro (Red Lake Band of Ojibwe), and Laurie Weahkee (Diné, Cochiti and Zuni Pueblo).

To read more about our full endorsement slate and Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund more broadly, visit advancenativepl.org.

ADVANCE NATIVE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ACTION FUND
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2022

MEDIA CONTACT:
Pam Bradshaw
pam@advancenativepl.org
401-808-9332

Advance Native Political Leadership Releases First-Ever National Endorsement Slate of Native American Candidates Ahead of 2022 Midterms

Up and down the ballot, Native candidates are poised to make history in this election with a record-breaking number running for office.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Against the backdrop of the largest wave of U.S. Indigenous candidates to run for office in United States history, Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund (Advance) is making history by releasing the first national endorsement slate of Native American candidates spanning local, state, and federal offices.

Statement from Holly Cook Macarro (Red Lake Band of Ojibwe), Endorsement Committee Spokesperson for Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund

“Indigenous leadership is transforming our country – look around us: Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Ojibwe), Congresswoman Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk), Congresswoman Mary Peltola (Yup’ik), Congressman Kai Kehele (Native Hawaiian). We’re still here, we’ve always been here, and we’ll continue to be here.”

It’s been 500 years of our people living under a narrative written for us, without us. With the election of Congresswoman Davids and then-Congresswoman Haaland in 2018, it was a critical paradigm shift in how our community saw its place at the table. Now we’re running and we’re winning. We deserve representation that looks like the communities they serve. Our peoples carry with them powerful lived experience, a culture of community leadership, and a vision for a more just and equitable world. The next 10 years will be a defining decade for Native leadership in this country and Advance intends to be at the forefront of it.

Statement from Anathea Chino (Acoma Pueblo), Co-Founder and Executive Director of Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund

“Our communities are under attack. We see it in the Supreme Court with challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and tribal sovereignty, on school boards with attacks on teaching our very history, on the edges of tribal lands with private corporations preying on our resources and sacred sites – we need Indigenous leadership now more than ever. We cannot allow others to define our narratives, Native peoples are defining our own destinies.”