Washington — Native Women Win Governor, Senate, Tribal Races

Voters in Tuesday's midterm elections put Native American women in the governor's office, the US Senate and the top leadership posts of two tribal nations for the first time, according to The Guardian.

Who won the governor's race in New Mexico?

Deb Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo and the former US interior secretary under President Joe Biden, will become New Mexico's governor, the Guardian reported. She is the first Native American woman elected governor of any state.

Who is heading to the US Senate?

Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Minnesota's current lieutenant governor, won election to the US Senate, according to the Guardian. She becomes the first Native American woman elected to that chamber. A second Senate seat held by a Native woman remains in play: Mary Peltola, who is Yup'ik, is waiting on final results in her Alaska race, the Guardian said.

Who now leads the Navajo Nation and Seneca Nation?

Crystalyne Curley will become the first woman to lead the Navajo Nation, one of the largest tribes in the country, the Guardian reported. In western New York, Tina Abrams will lead the Seneca Nation of Indians, also the first woman to hold that post in the tribe's modern history.

How many Native candidates won nationwide?

At least 75 Native women, non-binary and Two Spirit candidates won office across the country in the November elections, according to Advance Native Political Leadership and the news outlet ICT, as cited by the Guardian.

"This is a seismic shift that is happening in our communities," Jordan James Harvill, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and strategist with Advance Native Political Leadership, told the Associated Press, according to the Guardian.

Why does this matter historically?

Native Americans were not guaranteed the right to vote in every US state until the 1960s, the Guardian noted. Progress in tribal and state leadership has been gradual since then — Wilma Mankiller became the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985, according to the Guardian's report. Tuesday's results mark the first time a Native woman has held a governorship or a US Senate seat.

What to watch

• Alaska's Senate race remains uncertain. If Mary Peltola wins, she would join Peggy Flanagan as a second Native woman senator, the Guardian reported.
• Deb Haaland's transition into the New Mexico governor's office will be watched for policy priorities tied to her prior role as interior secretary.
• Crystalyne Curley and Tina Abrams begin their terms leading the Navajo Nation and Seneca Nation, respectively — the first women to do so for either tribe in the modern era.
• Advance Native Political Leadership and ICT are expected to publish fuller tallies of down-ballot Native candidates in the weeks after the election, per the Guardian's sourcing.