Indianz.Com > News > Cronkite News: ‘Navajos 4 Trump’ traveled to nation’s capital for inaugural parade
Canceled inauguration parade would have put spotlight on pro-Donald Trump Navajo group
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Inaugural Parade, canceled three days before President Donald Trump’s swearing-in – would have featured a couple of dozen “Navajos for Trump,” activists who campaigned for Trump in Arizona and other states.
“We were slugging it out door-knocking … everywhere we could get on the reservation,” said Mike Woestehoff, a consultant in D.C. and a Native American advocate who grew up on the reservation in Ganado, Arizona. “It will be a nice little reunion.”
Forecasters expect a frigid afternoon Monday for them and roughly 7,500 other parade participants from 23 states, announced by the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee. Wind chill will be in the teens, making this the coldest inauguration since Ronald Reagan’s in 1985.
On Friday, Trump announced that the inauguration would be moved indoors at the Capitol. All outdoor events, including the parade, were scrapped to protect the safety of VIPs, tens of thousands of supporters who planned to attend the ceremony on the National Mall, and the many police and National Guard who would have spent much of the day in the dangerous conditions. The inaugural committee scrambled over the weekend to arrange a viewing party inside the Capital One Arena that would included some of the groups invited to take part in the parade.
Native Americans have historically favored Democrats, but Trump has made significant gains. Nationally, he drew 39% of the Native American vote in November, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. “As Navajos, we would get some recognition that we are a Native group and that there are Native groups that are conservative and do support Trump,” said Ina Noggle, a Trump supporter from Sanders, Arizona. In Apache County, which includes Sanders and much of the Navajo reservation and where the electorate is overwhelmingly Native American, President Joe Biden outpolled Trump 65-32 in 2020, according to Arizona Secretary of State’s Office records. In November, Trump cut the Democrats’ edge significantly, trailing Vice President Kamala Harris 59-40 in Apache County.Navajos for Trump spearheaded door-knocking, parades, and community gatherings across the Navajo Nation fueling GOP gains in our Southwestern states. Native Americans overwhelmingly rejected expensive liberal policies, and stood firm as defenders of life in the womb, pushing back… pic.twitter.com/l3Se9l7iNV
— Kelly Rael (@JesuslovesAZ) January 9, 2025

Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
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