'Sounding the alarm': Natives increasingly voted Republican in midterms

Election 2022 research indicates lacking tribal outreach from Dems & GOP, yet more tribal citizens voted for Republicans than in 2018, 2020.

(Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — In a rundown of Election 2022 held this evening, leaders with the Native American Caucus of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) expressed concern about new polling data that finds Native voters are increasingly voting for Republicans.

In response, they are urging improved mobilization and increased spending for future elections.

“The DNC needs to fund a 50-state plan for [the] Native vote, starting now,” Gwen Carr, executive director of the Carlisle Indian School Project, shared during the virtual meeting.

“…It’s just so important to keep sounding the alarm of making investments, as broadly as we can, especially for tribal communities,” added Clara Pratte, chair of the Native Caucus.

The research, part of a poll conducted by the African American Research Collaborative (AARC), was led by researchers Gabe Sanchez and Ray Foxworth in collaboration with the Brookings Institution.

The polling was based on landline, cell phone and web-based survey responses from 500 Native voter respondents from Oct. 22 through Election Day. 24% indicated they were urban Indian voters.

Major findings related to voter party preferences this year were somewhat surprising given that Native Americans are widely and anecdotally believed to vote overwhelmingly Democratic.

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While Natives continued supporting Dems over GOPers in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races the current polling is based on, Democratic support among tribal citizens is slipping as compared to 2018 and 2022, the researchers noted.

Sanchez said during the Nov. 22 meeting with the DNC Native Caucus that in these races across the country, Native Americans supported Democratic candidates at a 56% rate relative to 40% of Native Americans who reported voting for Republicans.

Among Native voters polled, that amounted to a -4% decrease in Democratic vote percentage relative to the 60% Democratic vote share in 2020.

Compared to 2018 when Dems received 61% of the Native vote, there was a -5% decrease in Democratic voting behavior.

Native women were 12% more likely to vote Democratic over Native men, according to the polling, and the researchers said that was largely due to heightened attention to reproductive policy issues.

Natives are voting for Dems at a much lower rate than Blacks, Latinos and Asians, as represented in the below graphic, shared by Sanchez: