Native voters could swing US elections, but they're asking politicians: What have you done for us?- Associated Press
Felix Ashley’s red Toyota sends a plume of dust billowing along the sloping hills and boulders he traverses hours every week to pump water – the same roadway voters walk miles every four years to cast their ballots in presidential elections.
Here on this forgotten swath of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the United States, hardship is embedded into day-to-day life.
Nearly a third of homes like Ashley’s still don’t have running water. Soaring unemployment and poverty has pushed young Navajos, including most of Ashley’s children, to leave their sacred lands in search of jobs. Logistical and legal obstacles have long stood in the way of Arizona’s 420,000 Native citizens casting their vote.
“People lose trust in the government and they don’t – you don’t – care to vote anymore. People don’t get what they were promised,” said 70-year-old Ashley, who plans to vote for Harris.
Yet it is Native voters like him who could be key to winning Arizona and some of the most contested swing states in November. In 2020, Arizona voted for a Democratic president for the first time in decades, with President Joe Biden winning the race by around 10,500 votes.
Native Americans – who make up 5.2% of Arizona– saw a surge in turnout, voting in large numbers for the Democratic Party, according to a data analysis by the Associated Press.
The victory turned the heads of politicians from both parties, who now flock to some of the most remote swaths of Arizona as they try to close razor thin margins. Democrats are hoping to repeat the feat, while Republicans see an opportunity to use Native voters’ frustration with the economy as a chance to sweep up new votes.
Local fairs and flea markets are painted with blue and red campaign signs reading “Trump low prices” and others written in Native slang “Stoodis Harris” or “Let’s do this Harris”. Radio ads for both presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ring out on the radio every 30 minutes in homes far from the reach of cellphone signals.
In the weeks leading up to the election, dozens of people who spoke to the AP expressed frustration with politicians in Washington, who they say rarely use their seat at the table to push for them.
At the same time, some voters face almost insurmountable obstacles to voting.
Some tribes have to travel up to 285 miles to cast their ballots, according to the Native American Rights Fund. Homes on the reservation don’t have addresses needed to register to vote, and some older Navajos don’t speak much English.
Compounding logistical hurdles is historic voter suppression. Native people were first recognized as U.S. citizens 100 years ago, but Arizona prevented them from voting until 1948, arguing they were “incompetent." Many states used English literacy tests to further block voters from casting ballots until the 1970s.
Since then, legal experts say a mix of voter dilution tactics and burdensome election laws have blocked the Native vote as recently as 2022, when the Republican-controlled state Legislature and governor passed a law requiring voters to provide proof of residency and an address for presidential voting.
The U.S. Supreme Court later struck down the measure, but Native communities have seen thousands of ballots thrown out in past elections due to similar statutes. Indigenous voters have their ballots rejected at higher rates than other demographics in the state, according to Arizona State University’s Indian Legal Clinic.
Democrats have long claimed an advantage in number of votes on reservations like the Navajo Nation. They’ve boasted a heavy presence on Native lands, and in the final weeks of the election Harris, Biden and Walz all met with Native groups.
But they now face a strong campaign push by Republicans among Native voters in an attempt to peel off votes.
The Republican Party has opened its first campaign headquarters on the Navajo Nation, said Halee Dobbins, Arizona communications director of the Republican National Committee, and started to set up in local events.
“We’re seeing a huge shift towards the Republican party given the issues that are top of mind for Native American voters – the economy, inflation, cost of living," Dobbins said.
In mid-October, Trump’s campaign invited a group of Navajo supporters like 61-year-old Francine Bradley-Arthur to sit behind him during a rally, where Trump gave a shout out to a conservative tribal leader.
Bradley-Arthur, a former Democrat, said she began to campaign for Trump, in part, because she felt Native communities often didn’t feel the payoff of longtime support for Democrats.
“We want to show that Native Americans support him,” she said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego went as far as to trek hours to a tribe at the bottom of a canyon in the weeks before the election, where he’s locked in a tight race against Republican Kari Lake.
Gallego was met with skepticism from some like Dinolene Caska, a Havasupai tribal leader.
“For me, it’s whoever is going to support Indigenous issues. It’s not just Republicans or Democrats,” Caska said. This year she planned to for Democrats because of their backing in the tribe's fights with a uranium mine over clean water.
For others Navajo, this is the year they are willing to try something new.
Just down the road from Ashley, 68-year-old goat herder Richard Begay blames Biden for inflation disproportionately affecting Native Americans because of the scarcity of jobs in their communities. The prices of gas and food for his animals have squeezed his pocketbook. He hopes Trump’s push for deregulation could usher in new development and a better economy
“I remember gas was $1.60 here and when Biden came and went up over $3,” he said. “We don’t have the money to buy gas at outrageous prices. We pay more for less.”
Deadly Roswell flood knocked out a polling site, in reminder of climate change’s threats to voting — Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
When a deadly, record-breaking storm inundated Roswell earlier this month, it not only wrecked homes and businesses, it knocked an Election Day voting center out of commission.
The city’s convention hall was waterlogged and covered in mud. That sent Chaves County Clerk Cindy Fuller in search of a new polling site for Nov. 5, which requires a judge’s permission. Fifth Judicial District Judge Dustin Hunter signed off on the request, and now voting will take place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church instead of the Roswell Convention and Civic Center.
“We wanted to keep it basically in the same area,” Fuller said.
Early voting was already underway throughout the state, and the convention center wasn’t being used for that. But a disaster just weeks before the final day of voting has become a stark reality in New Mexico and beyond, to the threats climate change poses to the right to cast a ballot.
The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office is asking lawmakers to pass legislation to better prepare for and respond to threats from climate disasters, said Alex Curtas, a spokesperson for the state election agency.
Exact wording for any proposed law to address climate threat scenarios is in a “nascent stage,” he said, but is planned to be put forward in the 2025 New Mexico legislative 60-day session, set to start in January.
Currently, all changes to county’s elections – such as polling site moves – must be approved by a district judge before being enacted. Neither state elections officials, nor counties can make that move without a court’s permission, Curtas said.
The state has made some moves to address preparation and communication between county clerks, the state’s elections office and emergency management personnel, Curtas said.
“There needs to be a more standardized set of procedures for the state as these climate emergencies become more and more common,” Curtas said. “While there are some back end things we do now to prepare, and have lines of communication open, we are still looking for better procedures to be put in place at the state level.”
The Oct. 19 storm dumped a record-breaking 5.78 inches of rain that state officials blame for two deaths. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham requested federal aid Monday to address the costs in Roswell, as the state and local officials try to tally up the storm’s damages.
The storm hit just days before the last day to request an absentee ballot, and Fuller asked the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office if she could extend the county’s deadlines for mail-in ballots, but was denied.
Mandy Vigil, the secretary’s Election Director for the state, said in an email that state law has no means to extend deadlines, “under any circumstances.”
In an interview last week, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) told Source NM said climate disasters in New Mexico pose both physical and mental threats.
“People think about flooding at this level when you’re in a hurricane or tropical storm,” Leger Fernández said about the devastation in Roswell. “We’re in the middle of America, in an arid part of the county, and we’re seeing a storm that can do this kind of damage – this is a shock to people’s sense of security.”
Climate change from the burning of fossil fuels is driving disasters to become more destructive, as rising temperatures supercharge storms and wildfire conditions.
Other New Mexico areas hit hard in recent months faced no changes to election plans. Lincoln and Otero counties had a combination of wildfires and flooding that destroyed hundreds of homes, but polling locations for both early voting and Election Day were intact and remain unchanged, county election officials told Source NM.
In 2022, the state’s largest wildfires impacted the primary elections and forced Mora County to move polling locations and offer more information on requesting absentee ballots. All has “returned to normal,” for the 2024 General Election, said Vivan Trujillo, Mora County’s clerk.
Election operations have been disrupted in parts of North Carolina and Florida that are reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Damage from Helene and Milton have disrupted mail delivery, prevented voters from registering in time for deadlines during evacuations and wreaked havoc on critical infrastructure, such as power and internet connections.
Critics blast archbishop's statement on Soldiers' Monument as 'anti-Hispanic'- Santa Fe New Mexican
Several proponents of rebuilding the Soldiers' Monument on the Santa Fe Plaza have criticized Archbishop John C. Wester's call this week for "common ground" on the issue as anti-Hispanic.
In a Monday letter to the city of Santa Fe, Wester wrote the city must reach a compromise in which Indigenous groups, veterans and others can all feel respected. He mentioned, but did not specifically endorse, a proposal to consider moving the obelisk to the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
A resolution to explore the feasibility of such a project is scheduled for a vote at Wednesday night's City Council meeting, which begins at 5 p.m.
In a Wednesday email obtained by The New Mexican, Union Protectíva de Santa Fé President Virgil Vigil accused the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe of attacking Northern New Mexico's "history, culture and traditions," and described Wester's statement as "anti-Hispano and pro-Indian."
The Hispanic fraternal organization sued the city over the monument's toppling on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020, culminating in a two-day trial last month. A judge has yet to deliver a verdict.
"He needs to stay in his lane of the church and not change to the political lane which he has no authority and/or right," Vigil wrote of Wester. He noted the archdiocese's struggle with a history of clergy sexual abuse and the recent sale of properties "given to the church by deceased members such as the Cristo Rey Rectory to name one."
Vigil was referring to hundreds of claims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the archdiocese, which led to a federal bankruptcy case. The 400 claimants agreed to a $121.5 million settlement with the archdiocese in December 2022. The archdiocese sold some properties to help cover the settlement cost, and Wester asked local parishes to help raise funds.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vigil said he believed Wester's letter to the city, and a letter earlier this month from Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Milton Herrera voicing support for moving the monument, were deliberately timed to ensure the council resolution is pushed through.
A message from Elmer Maestas included in Vigil's email also criticized local pueblos for speaking out again the obelisk, which long has caused controversy over a plaque dedicating it to soldiers who died in battle against "savage Indians."
"We, non-Pueblo citizens, do not tell the Pueblos anything regarding what, where and how regarding their Pueblos — thus, they, should stick to their Pueblo business, and leave it to the real Santa Fe citizenry to rightly deal with Santa Fe," Maestas wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more details.
Whooping cough cases double in NM — Daniel Montaño
NMHealth, formerly the Department of Health, announced today whooping cough has struck twice as many people in New Mexico than it did last year at the same time. It’s even worse at a national level, with five times as many cases across the country.
Marla Sievers, an infectious disease epidemiologist with NM Health, said whooping cough, also known as pertussis, typically goes through periods of waxing and waning case numbers, which is one reason for this recent uptick. But she points out that in the last few years people are being less cautious about respiratory illnesses than they used to be.
“So like many respiratory infections during the pandemic, when people were taking a lot of precautions, like wearing masks and reducing time indoors, we saw all respiratory infections decrease,” she said. “Many of them have come back up to those pre -andemic levels, including pertussis.
She said the best protection is ensuring vaccinations are up to date. Children receive a series of pertussis vaccines during early childhood, she said, and then a booster as a pre-teen. Adults are recommended to receive at least one pertussis-containing vaccine during their adulthood.
Pertussis gets its nickname from a “whooping” noise made by sufferers as they breathe in after the typical violent coughing attacks for which the illness is known.
The coughing can be so violent as to cause broken ribs, ernias, seizures, swelling in the brain, and even death, according to NM Health.
“Pertussis is treatable with antibiotics,” she said. “Antibiotics will not only help the sick person recover, but will help prevent transmission to other folks along with other measures like good hand washing and cough etiquette, so covering your nose and mouth when you cough and sneeze will help prevent transmission.”
Sievers says vaccines for children and uninsured folks are available through the state’s public health offices. For more information, or assistance finding a vaccine provider, call the nurse helpline at 1-833-796-8773.
Federal government hands out $2.4 billion for 122 railroad projects nationwide — Josh Funk, Associated Press
New Mexico will receive more than $4.5 million in funding for two rail projects in the state.
Up to $4 million will go to the Four Corners Rail Project, and almost $575,000 will go to the city of Clovis for a corridor improvement project.
The federal government is handing out $2.4 billion in railroad grants to help pay for 122 projects nationwide with more than half of the money going to smaller railroads.
The grants announced Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration will go to projects across 41 states and Washington, D.C. Most of the money will go to track and bridge upgrades. But some of the grants will be used to bolster training and explore cleaner-burning alternatives to the diesel railroads have long relied on. Some small railroads will also get help upgrading to more efficient locomotives.
Much of the money comes from the 2021 infrastructure law that President Joe Biden championed. Last year, the administration handed out $1.4 billion in these rail grants.
"Each project advances a future where our supply chains are stronger, passenger rail more accessible, and freight movement safer and more efficient," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
Some of the grants will also help address rail safety concerns that have become prevalent since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 and spilled a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that caught fire. Regulators have urged railroads to improve safety and the industry has undertaken a number of initiatives on its own. But bigger changes that lawmakers proposed after the disastrous derailment have stalled in Congress and little progress has been made in the current election year.
The biggest single project is a $215 million grant that will help pay to replace a Hudson River bridge that CSX owns between Albany and Rensselaer, New York, that Amtrak relies heavily on. The state is paying the other 60% of the $634.8 million cost of the project that will allow two trains and pedestrians to cross the river at the same time. Currently, about 12 Amtrak trains and several freight trains cross the bridge, built in 1901, every day.
In Illinois, nearly $160 million will go toward consolidating Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern's tracks through Springfield and help clear the way for a higher speed rail connection between Chicago and St. Louis.
One grant worth up to $100 million will help bolster tracks that Amtrak uses against threats related to climate change and improve the reliability of the tracks in southern California's Orange County.
Several grants, including one worth more than $48 million, will go toward development of hydrogen-powered locomotives that could one day help the rail industry drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Other grants include $67 million to expand an intermodal railyard in Michigan where shipping containers are moved between trains and trucks. Nearly $73 million will go to improving the Muskego railyard in Milwaukee.
But the majority of the money — nearly $1.3 billion — will go to 81 projects at smaller short line railroads across the country. Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association trade group, said the grants will help those smaller railroads significantly.
"Congress and the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) can be confident that short lines will put these public dollars to good use, providing new and efficient ways of serving customers, linking small town and rural America to U.S. and international markets," Baker said.
UFC champ Jon Jones agrees to anger management classes to resolve assault charge — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
UFC heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones has agreed to attend four hours of anger management classes to resolve a pair of misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test at his New Mexico home in which he was accused of being hostile.
A bench trial was set to begin Tuesday before a New Mexico judge, but a prosecutor and Jones' defense attorney announced at the start of the virtual proceeding that an agreement had been reached.
The charges of assault, a petty misdemeanor, and interference with communication, a misdemeanor, will be dismissed as along as Jones completes the anger management classes and follows all laws over the next 90 days.
Jones had pleaded not guilty in July, and when the allegations first became public earlier this year, he called them baseless. He posted on social media that he had been taken off guard by what he called the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and acknowledged cursing after getting frustrated.
Considered one of the top MMA fighters, Jones took the heavyweight title with a first-round submission over Ciryl Gane in March 2023. It was Jones' first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division. He already was the best light heavyweight by winning a record 14 title fights.
Jones will face Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at New York's Madison Square Garden. He and Miocic were scheduled to fight last year, but a pectoral injury forced Jones to postpone.
In 2016, Jones was suspended for a year for a failed drug test and had his 2017 victory over Daniel Cormier turned into a no-contest after another drug test came up positive. Jones argued later that he would have passed under standards that were revised in 2019 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which changed the criteria for what constituted a positive test.
A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which conducts tests for professional athletes, initially filed a report with Albuquerque police in April. She accused Jones of threatening her while she and a colleague were at Jones' home for a drug test.
A criminal complaint stated that the woman described Jones as cooperative at first but that he became agitated.
Jones told police that he apologized for swearing at the woman and her co-worker at the end of the test. He provided video from what appeared to be a home camera system showing the woman giving him a high-five before leaving. He said neither appeared scared during the interaction.
New Mexico Gas Co. owner files to sell the company – Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico Gas Co.’s parent company is selling the utility to a Louisiana private equity firm.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Emera, based in Canada, announced plans in August to sell the gas company to BCP Management for $1.2 billion.
The gas company, along with Saturn Utilities Holdco, which is part of BCP, filed a request Monday with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to have Saturn Holdco replace Emera as the owner of New Mexico Gas.
If the PRC approves the deal, Saturn would pay about $700 million and assume over half a billion dollars in debt.
According to the filing, New Mexico Gas would maintain its own local board of directors and management team. BCP leadership committed to keeping all the current jobs at the gas company in place. The president of Saturn Holdco told the PRC Monday that there will likely be up to 61 new jobs as well.
The companies have asked the PRC to approve the sale as soon as possible. The sale is slated to close on Sept. 30, 2025.