National | Politics

Montana Democrats hire Native vote director in bid to boost turnout

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Congressional candidate Denise Juneau displays a shawl she received as a gift during the Arlee Celebration on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Photo from Facebook

The Montana Democratic Party is banking on a big turnout among Native voters this November.

Native Americans represent 6.6 percent of the population in the Treasure State, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and they have long been a politically active group. Native voters have swayed elections in the past and they send a consistent number of their peers to the Montana Legislature year after year.

With a prominent Native candidate on the ballot -- that would be Denise Juneau, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation who is campaigning for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives -- Democrats are hoping to tap into that network. The state party hired Amy Croover as the director of its Native Vote program and she's bringing on a slew of field organizers to work on all seven reservations in the state.

“I jumped at the chance to be part of the team that elects Denise Juneau as this country’s first Native American woman to Congress,” Croover, who is a member of the Winnebago Tribe, said in a press release. “I believe when Democrats govern, Indian Country wins.”

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) participated in an honoring ceremony in October 2015 for Michael Kenneth Bell, a Navy SEAL from the Fort Peck Tribes who was murdered in 2006. Photo from Facebook

To make history, Juneau has to defeat Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), a first-term member of Congress who is running for re-election. Although he is burning through cash at a faster rate than his rival, he can afford it because he's raised far more contributions, according to amounts compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Zinke has supported tribes on energy development, sovereignty and employment matters during his short time on Capitol Hill. But Democrats say his positions are more tuned into Republican interests -- such as repealing the Affordable Care Act -- rather than advancing Indian Country's priorities.

He also has heartily embraced Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose race-related attacks on tribes and their rights goes back decades.

But Zinke is vying for the Native vote too and he has called on Juneau to debate him in Indian Country. His campaign has proposed one forum on the Crow Reservation -- right during the middle of the hugely-popular Crow Fair -- and another on the Fort Peck Reservation.

Juneau included a forum on the Flathead Reservation, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, in a debate schedule she proposed back in May. Tribal leaders there have already endorsed Juneau, The Char-Koosta News reported.