{"id":5727,"date":"2020-12-14T10:42:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=5727"},"modified":"2020-12-14T10:49:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:49:40","slug":"cronkite-news-tribal-leaders-cast-electoral-votes-for-joe-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/12\/14\/cronkite-news-tribal-leaders-cast-electoral-votes-for-joe-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Tribal leaders cast electoral votes for Joe Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Jonathan
President Jonathan Nez of the Navajo Nation is seen with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris during a campaign stop in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 8, 2020. Photo by Adam Schultz \/ Biden for President<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Three Arizona tribal leaders on diverse slate of 11 electoral voters<\/div>\r\n
Monday, December 14, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Calah Schlabach<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON – In what a former Arizona elector called “a sweet irony,” the slate of 11 Democratic presidential electors who will cast Arizona’s Electoral College votes Monday includes three tribal leaders.

<\/P>\r\nGila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. will join eight other Democrats to cast the state’s votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nWhile it may have been a sweet irony, however, it was no accident.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\r\nArizona Democratic Party Chair Felecia Rotellini said she wanted to \r\nchoose electors<\/a>\r\nwho would “represent the diversity of Arizona, and the diversity of Arizona voters, as well as Arizona Democratic voters.” That included the three tribal leaders with “deep roots to our state.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“The three leaders of the tribes that we selected are also great partners with the Arizona Democratic Party in terms of helping us to promote candidates that reflect the values that we all believe in – the values that were on the ballot in this election,” Rotellini said. “Without their leadership, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

<\/P>\r\nNorris did not respond to requests for comment and Lewis declined. But Nez called being chosen an elector is “a big honor.”

<\/P>\r\n“I’m overjoyed, and happy to cast the Navajo electorate vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” he said.

<\/P>\r\n

\r\n\"ned\r\n
Tohono O\u2019odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. during congressional testimony in February. Norris is one of three tribal leaders, with Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, on the slate of 11 diverse electors who will cast the state\u2019s Electoral College votes Monday, December 14, 2020, for President-elect Joe Biden. File photo by Jessica Myers \/ Cronkite News\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe role of elector is largely symbolic, said Andrew Gordon, an \r\nelector in 1996,<\/a>\r\nthe last time Arizona voted for a Democratic president.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“Most people obviously don’t know they exist,” he said, even though it’s the electors who Americans actually cast ballots for when they vote in a presidential election.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe symbolism of this particular slate of electors is not lost on Gordon, especially in Arizona which has a \u201creal serious \r\ndisenfranchisement problem,<\/a>\r\nparticularly with the Native American population \u2026 So I do think there is a very sweet irony that we’ve got such a high representation.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\r\nSen. Jamescita Peshlakai, D-Cameron, said the state’s \r\n22 tribes,<\/a>\r\nwhich hold “25% of the landmass in Arizona” need more input in all aspects of governance. She said Native Americans too often are “invisible to those that we elect in office,” but their high turnout and overwhelming support of Democrats this year proves they have an impact.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\r\n“People only come out during the campaigning time and promises are forgotten after people win their office,” said Peshlakai, who is Arizona’s first \r\nNative American woman<\/a>\r\nsenator. “So it’s important to have more Indigenous people in every capacity and then as electors as well, to, to keep the pressure up on those that we support.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\nNez, who was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention, said he has been reminding Democrats since the beginning of this election not to take the Native American vote for granted.

<\/P>\r\n“I think it’s really a strong belief of the party that Native Americans continue to contribute and have contributed to this country,” Nez said. Native Americans “are key to the success of the Democratic Party, and also, the future of the party itself.”

<\/P>\r\n

\r\n\"stephen\r\n
Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, center, one of three tribal leaders chosen as presidential electors to reflect the diversity of Democratic voters in the state. File photo by Keerthi Vedantam \/ Cronkite News\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nRotellini said it made sense to choose tribal leaders as electors because they have contributed to the state in a multitude of ways, including economically, spiritually and socially. Moreover, she said, the three tribal electors’ values align with the party\u2019s on issues like affordable, accessible healthcare, good public education, environmental protection and protection of elders.

<\/P>\r\nGordon commended Rotellini for naming an overall diverse slate of electors, noting that being party chair can be “just an awful” job.

<\/P>\r\n“This is one of the very few little goodies you get is to name the electors, and she was very conscientious about” making sure it was a diverse group, Gordon said.

<\/P>\r\nRotellini said she “tried to represent the constituencies across the state from the southern border to the northern border and, yes, it was difficult.” She said she aimed to include as many constituency groups as she could: labor, LGBTQ, different ethnic groups, women leaders, as well as community activists, rural and urban residents and, of course, tribal leaders.

<\/P>\r\n“It’s my chance to acknowledge their partnership and their contributions, not only in the individual electors, but the communities that they represent,” she said.

<\/P>\r\n

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