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News > Republicans take U.S. Senate with promises of a Donald Trump agenda
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, center, is flanked by his wife, Carmen, and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) in Bozeman, Montana, following his election victory on November 5, 2024. Photo: Tim Sheehy for Montana
Republicans take U.S. Senate with promises of a Donald Trump agenda
‘His agenda runs through the Republican-led United States Senate’
Thursday, November 7, 2024
By Acee Agoyo
Indianz.Com
A Republican in the White House isn’t the only big change Indian Country is facing as tribes seek to hold the U.S. government accountable for its trust and treaty responsibilities.
By
winning at least 52 seats in the
U.S. Senate, Republicans have managed to wrest control of the chamber from Democrats. The GOP leadership — many of them with significant ties to Indian Country — is already promising a major shift in the legislative landscape once
Donald Trump assumes power as head of the executive branch of the federal government.
“President Trump’s victory today is a mandate from the American people to get this country back on track,”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), a former chairman of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said in a
post on social media early Wednesday morning.
“His agenda runs through the Republican-led United States Senate,” continued Barrasso, who currently chairs the
Senate Republican Conference. “Working together, we will deliver for the American people.”
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Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), another GOP leadership figure with ties to Indian Country, offered some specifics later on Wednesday. He too said Trump will be able to rely on the Senate to advance a conservative-driven agenda.
“Senate Republicans are ready to get to work to secure the border, renew American energy dominance, and lower costs for families,”
said Thune, who currently serves as Senate Republican Whip, the person who keeps GOP lawmakers in line. “With President Trump in the White House, we will work hand-in-hand to get America back on track.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana), an active member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, also
has been celebrating the GOP takeover. As chair of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party’s campaign arm, he was a big supporter of
Tim Sheehy, the controversial Republican newcomer who pulled off a huge upset in Montana by defeating
Democrat Jon Tester, a longtime advocate for tribal issues, despite making
derogatory comments about Native people.
“I took an oath to serve all Americans in uniform, and as your Senator, I will serve all Montanans,”
Sheehy proclaimed on Thursday. “We’ve got a country to save, let’s get to work.”
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Daines stood by Sheehy as
tribes,
tribal organizations,
state lawmakers and
advocates demanded an apology for comments in which he repeatedly linked Native people in Montana — more specifically, residents of the Crow Reservation — to alcohol and violent activity. But the
“sorry” never came even after the
Democratic incumbent confronted his Republican rival during a
televised debate a month before voters went to the polls.
Unofficial results from the Montana Secretary of State show that Native voters once again stood behind Tester, a former chair and vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, as they have done in prior elections. In
Big Horn County, home to the
Crow Tribe and the
Northern Cheyenne Tribe, almost 62 percent of the vote went to Tester.
In
Glacier County, home to the
Blackfeet Nation, Tester won nearly 72 percent of the vote, according to the results. And in
Blaine County, home to the
Fort Belknap Indian Community, nearly 59 percent of voters supported Tester.
But unlike prior elections, the Native vote this time wasn’t enough to offset Montana’s growing non-Native population — a base that easily supported Trump and other Republican candidates across the ballot, including a Republican incumbent serving in a
Congressional district created just two years ago. Sheehy managed to win 53 percent of the vote statewide, confirming polls that had consistently shown him in the lead against Tester.
Still, Native voters flexed their power in other ways. They are sending a record 12 Native lawmakers to the Montana Legislature, according to a tally kept by
Western Native Voice, a Native-led advocacy organization.
“This year, Native American absentee ballot returns in Montana reached 75.5%. We’re so proud of our communities for showing up despite the challenges,” Western Native Voice said in a
post on social media on Wednesday.
Tim Sheehy in Montana: ‘Our Native Brothers and Sisters’
Historically, Montana’s Congressional delegation has been united on a number of bills benefiting tribes in the state, where Native people represent about 6.2 percent of the population. Daines and Tester have succeeding in enacting significant water rights settlements for the Blackfeet Nation, the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Crow Tribe, for example. They also worked together to secure federal recognition for the
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians through an
act of Congress.
During the campaign, Sheehy stuck mainly to
conservative talking points, staking out positions on the U.S. border and guns that are in line with national Republican views. At the
Montana PBS debate, he expressed seemingly contradictory views on issues like support for the
Indian Health Service and funding for public safety on reservations.
But in his
election night victory speech from Bozeman — where he was introduced as the winner of the race by Daines — Sheehy acknowledged “our Native brothers and sisters” in Montana. “It’s about time we turn the page on relations here,” he said.
“We make sure we get our tribal communities back on their feet economically,”
Sheehy said toward the end of his remarks. “We give them sovereignty and agency so that they can succeed economically, grow businesses on the reservation, and have the economic freedom to grow their communities, have prosperity, and have a successful, organic economy on every tribal community in the state.”
Trump’s victory over
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, coupled with the Republican takeover of the Senate, has caused uncertainty in Indian Country. With President Joe Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling one chamber of the legislative branch of the U.S. government, tribes have seen significant legislative and policy gains since January 2021 — including the tens of billions of dollars that have been invested in tribal communities through the American Rescue Plan Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Billions of dollars in
infrastructure and water projects, along with federal funding for Indian programs, remain on the table as the 118th Congress winds down. Tribes are paying close attention to Capitol Hill as the year close to a close, with lawmakers due to return to work for what is commonly called a “
lame duck” session.
Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr: ‘The Cherokee Nation was here before anyone ever heard of the United States’
Amid the uncertainty, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the
Cherokee Nation offered an assessment of the new landscape on the day after the November 5 election. Speaking at
elders summit in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, he stressed the power of sovereignty and self-determination.
“I know this — in the past 50 years alone, we’ve seen the country shift one direction or the other,”
Hoskin said on Wednesday. “We’ve seen presidents come and we’ve seen them go. We’ve had elections that some of us have liked and some of us have not.”
Telling the crowd that “the Cherokee Nation was here before anyone ever heard of the United States” and “before anyone ever invented the state of Oklahoma,” Hoskin said he would continuing reminding national, state and local official that they stand to benefit from good relationships with the tribe, one of the two largest federally-recognized Indian nations in the U.S. He vowed to extend that outlook to the leader of the executive branch.
“We cannot operate out of fear or favor from whoever happens to be the president of the United States,” Hoskin said.
The 119th Congress is scheduled to begin on January 3, 2025. While the Senate will be in Republican hands, control of the
U.S. House of Representatives is still up in the air, as
more than two dozen races have yet to be called.
Native Vote
Among those
waiting for all votes to be counted is
Jonathan Nez, a former president of the
Navajo Nation running in
Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, where
Native people make up 22 percent of the population. The Democratic hopeful is trailing
Eli Crane, the
Republican incumbent, but ballots are still being counted on the reservation.
“This campaign has always been about the voices of rural Arizonans. In order to respect every rural vote, every rural voice we are waiting for votes to be counted,” Nez said on Wednesday, holding out hopes that he could be the first Native person from Arizona to serve in Congress.
Also in limbo is Democrat
Mary Peltola, who is the
first Alaska Native person to serve in Congress. She is trailing
Republican challenger Nick Begich but votes are still being tallied in a state that uses a ranked system and where Native people make up about 15 percent of the population.
Native Vote
Elsewhere, three Native incumbents won their re-election races. They are:
Josh Brecheen, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, in
Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District;
Tom Cole, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, in
Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District; and
Sharice Davids, a citizen of the Ho-Chunk Nation, in the
3rd Congressional District of Kansas.
But two Native candidates — both Republicans — fell short on Election Day in 2024.
Sharon Clahchischilliage, a citizen of Navajo Nation, was unable to unseat
Teresa Leger Fernandez, the
Democratic incumbent in
New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of the Navajo Nation.
And
Yvette Herrell, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, conceded to
Democrat Gabe Vasquez, the
incumbent in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, where several tribes are based. She previously held the seat but
lost it to Vasquez in 2022.
As for the Senate, the only tribal citizen in office is
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), who is from the Cherokee Nation. He
won the seat in November 2022 and began his six-year term in January 2023.
With no campaign of his own this year, Mullin spent his time as a key surrogate for Donald Trump. He was in Florida when the presidential race was called early Wednesday morning.
“He’s made history,”
Mullin said from Trump’s campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach. “Making an epic comeback when people counted him out.”
