USDA announces investments in tribal communities, acequias and water-saving programs - Jeanette DeDios, KUNM News
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday a new initiative to support acequias in the Southwest, tribal communities and water-saving programs.
According to a press release by the USDA, the effort is part of a larger approach to addressing drought across the West. The agency said integrating local farmers is key to ensuring a more sustainable and resilient future for rural communities.
Back in August, USDA selected 18 irrigation districts, including New Mexico’s Elephant Butte, for the production of crops that use less water. The production is expected to conserve up to 50,000 acre-feet of water across 250,000 acres of land.
The USDA has dedicated $45 million to expand this kind of assistance to tribal communities through Bureau of Indian Affairs Irrigations Projects. The Navajo Indian Irrigation project in New Mexico is one of three initial projects, along with the Colorado River and San Carlos in Arizona.
The USDA will also grant $15 million to both the Colorado and New Mexico state associations of Conservation Districts to help local acequias cultivate water-saving crops.
New Mexico agency seeks $50M boost to insurance program as finding private insurance gets harder - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico’s insurance regulator is asking lawmakers for $50 million to expand what its staff calls its “insurer of last resort,” as homeowners across the state report private property insurers continue to cancel their policies, refuse to renew them or hike up premium prices.
The Office of the Superintendent of Insurance is seeking the one-time appropriation at next year’s legislative session, as it rolls out a pilot program increasing coverage in Lincoln County. That area was hit hard by fire and floods this year.
The money would allow the state to increase payouts for property owners from its state-run insurance company, which they said has proved a lifeline for property owners seeking to rebuild or stay insured in fire-prone areas.
The OSI has had a state-run insurance program, known as the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR Plan, since 1969. The nonprofit insurance organization is there for New Mexicans who are unable to secure insurance in the normal marketplace.
Recipients have to be denied by two private insurers to qualify, according to Alice Kane, the state superintendent of insurance.
A one-time infusion of $50 million would represent a huge increase in funding for the nonprofit, which is largely funded by premiums. It has operated off of about $4.5 million in revenues in recent years, according to recent tax filings. The program also was slightly in the red last year, generating $4.6 million in revenues – mostly premiums and spending a little more than $5 million, including $3.7 million in claims.
The program still has about $9.8 million in assets, despite the small loss, according to its filings.
The OSI did not respond to a request Friday from Source New Mexico for more details on how an expanded FAIR Plan would work
The current program caps payouts at $350,000 for homes and $1 million for commercial properties, Kane told lawmakers at a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee on Thursday.
With the help of the additional funding, Kane said, an expanded FAIR Plan could increase coverage to $1 million for homes and $2 million for commercial properties. It would also serve as a “backstop” in case a catastrophe occurs before the state can collect enough in premiums to make the program sustainable.
That increase in coverage makes sense given the increase in home prices, Kane said. While $250,000 might have paid for an “amazing house” back in the 70s and 80s, “the numbers have gone up dramatically” since then, she said.
More than 1,000 homes were destroyed due to the South Fork and Salt fires and ensuing floods this summer, according to local estimates. Some residents have reported difficulty finding any private insurance coverage as they seek mortgages to rebuild.
Federal mortgage providers like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accept New Mexico’s FAIR plan, Kane said, which is a big help for those trying to rebuild.
It’s unclear how many policies across the state have been canceled or were subject to huge price hikes, but the office said the number has increased statewide.
The office has circulated a handout showing some counties saw huge increases in home insurance premiums between 2020 and 2023, ranging between 41% and 47% in Hidalgo, Roosevelt and Curry counties. On average, New Mexico premiums increased by 16% in the same time period, and the average annual premium is $1,817.
Despite the uptick in cancellations and non-renewals, insurance companies remain largely profitable in New Mexico, according to the OSI. Still, insurers here did have losses in 2016, 2017 and 2022. The two biggest wildfires in state history occurred in 2022.
Nationally, insurers have paid out more in claims than they received in premiums over the last decade, according to the OSI.
Not just the cold: Homeless community faces another threat this time of year - By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
Those experiencing homelessness are especially vulnerable to the colder weather, but the holiday stretch from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day can also bring on an increase in feelings of hopelessness, sadness and loneliness. City police representatives say it often results in a rise of “431” rescue calls due to someone with suicidal thoughts.
Albuquerque Police Department (APD) officer Howard Perry said this week that it’s one reason he’s grateful that Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) is generally available to respond to such calls.
“With ACS establishing themselves as their own entity, it’s a huge help out in the field. We utilize them on a daily basis,” he said. “[Responding] to these individuals [can] take an officer out of the field for several hours at a time, but this is now something that they can take on and offer more than what we could. It’s really important on the behavioral health side of things.”
Perry has been with APD since 2021 and is a member of its proactive response teams.
ACS officials said while the department doesn’t separate suicide ideation calls between housed and unhoused, the holiday season typically presents more challenges.
“Although suicidal ideation does not discriminate, the colder months, especially the holiday season, can be particularly challenging for individuals experiencing homelessness,” ACS spokesperson Jorge Hernandez, wrote in an email to City Desk ABQ. “The combination of colder temperatures, increased isolation and the emotional stress of the holidays can exacerbate mental health struggles.”
The subject was part of a Nob Hill – University Public Safety ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) meeting Wednesday, hosted by the program’s coordinator Darryl DeLoach. DeLoach was a crisis interaction role player for almost two decades, developing reality-based scenario training for APD and ACS personnel.
“[The training covers] a lot of the mental health and substance abuse issues — it’s a very effective tool,” he said. “I specialize in presenting mental health issues and representing these unhoused individuals and how they should be treated.”
Potential situations involve a number of scenarios, including someone who is thinking about jumping off a bridge. DeLoach has played a jumper on a bridge over a freeway in the trainings.
“Sometimes I’m someone with a mental health issue; someone who’s developmentally delayed; [or] who is suicidal and is intent on killing themselves,” he said.
The training includes deescalation and empathy skills.
“Everyone likes to say it’s the [sole] responsibility of the police to make us safe, but public safety is everybody’s responsibility,” DeLoach said. “As you notice these people in crisis, all they want is someone to look in their eyes and say, ‘Hey, I’m concerned about you; you know you need help; you know something is wrong.’”
Homeless advocate Mike Kruchoski said he considers ACS a “critical support resource” that is better trained to handle suicidal calls than law enforcement, assuming there’s not an additional factor like a weapon.
“That said, ACS is just one element of a solution,” he said. “Other elements should include crisis intervention lines and services through nonprofits, churches, educational institutions, hospitals and clinics.”
Kruchoski, who previously worked for a crisis intervention and suicide prevention helpline at the University of Utah, said he’s seen a variety of contributing factors to the feeling of hopelessness this time of year, including Albuquerque Fire Rescue extinguishing fires being used for warmth and the longer winter nights.
“I’ve seen the increased desperation that most homeless community members experience during the winter,” he said.
Kruchoski said he and his wife regularly interact with the city’s homeless population, offering food, water and hand warmers.
“People in crisis need someone there who’s going to respond to them in the right way,” DeLoach added. “Sometimes that’s an officer. Sometimes that’s not an officer.”
Editor’s note: ACS can be contacted through the city’s 311 system, by calling (505) 768-4227, or via email at acs@cabq.gov. For emergencies, call 911. The national suicide and crisis hotline can be accessed by dialing 988.
Renewable energy sector faces uncertainty following Trump election - Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
Immediately after the news broke that Donald Trump would once again be president, stocks in solar companies plummeted. Array Technologies, which has manufacturing facilities in Albuquerque, saw an approximately 20 percent drop in its stocks while Sunnova, which installs residential solar, saw more than 50 percent drop in stock.
One reason for this sudden drop in stock prices is the uncertainty around the future of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Jim DesJardins, executive director of Renewable Energy Industry Association of New Mexico, said the Inflation Reduction Act created a “10-year runway that provides an opportunity through incentives and other frameworks for the renewable energy (sector) to expand and grow.”
The law includes $365 billion of incentives, including the 30 percent federal tax credit for solar installations.
But it doesn’t stop there. DesJardins said it also provides incentives for apprenticeships and locating installations in low-income communities or places that have traditionally relied upon fossil fuel energy as an economic base.
Some Republicans have expressed interest in repealing all or part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Since it narrowly passed with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote about two years ago, Republicans have tried 54 times to repeal the law, including 29 votes on the floor and 25 votes in committees and subcommittees. Climate Power has been tracking these attempts.
At the same time, the Inflation Reduction Act quickly began doing what it was supposed to do: create new investment in the clean energy sector.
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT LED TO THE ‘ADVENT OF ECONOMIC REVOLUTION’
E2 Executive Director Bob Keefe and author of the book Clean Economy NOW said that repealing Inflation Reduction Act incentives like clean energy tax credits would hurt communities across the United States. E2 has been tracking investments that have been spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Keefe said the Inflation Reduction Act and its tax credits, not just for renewable energy sources like wind and solar but also for electric vehicles and clean energy manufacturing, has brought the nation to the “advent of economic revolution, the likes of which we haven’t seen in this country in generations.”
Keefe said there have been more than 350 clean energy industry projects announced nationwide since the Inflation Reduction Act passed. Those projects have brought $130 billion worth of private investments and created approximately 113,000 jobs.
“The idea that we would roll back these policies these tax credits when we know that they’re creating jobs, driving economic growth, creating local and state revenues, just seems like a big step in the wrong direction,” he said.
A lot of the 350 projects that E2 has tracked are located in areas that tend to vote Republican. Keefe said 60 percent of the projects announced are located within Republican congressional districts. Seven of the 350 projects are in New Mexico.
DesJardins said that just because a project is announced doesn’t mean that it will come to fruition. He said “things are definitely more uncertain than they were before Tuesday, Nov. 5.”
“I think President-elect Trump, in his first term in office, demonstrated that he was hard to predict,” DesJardins said.
He said in any business environment, certainty is better than uncertainty and, since the election, the renewable energy sector is facing more uncertainty.
COMPANIES SAY THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT IS INTEGRAL TO THEIR BUSINESS
It isn’t completely clear what would happen should the tax credits be repealed. Keefe said some companies are already beginning to scale back or are looking for other places to do business.
In August, E2 surveyed 900 clean energy companies from across the country and asked about the Inflation Reduction Act and what would happen if it got repealed or rolled back.
“The vast majority of clean energy companies said the IRA was integral to their business and to revenues, about a quarter of those companies surveyed said if the IRA is rolled back or reduced significantly, they’d have to lay off employees. Ten to 12 percent said if we go backward on this policy, they would either have to close their doors or move to other countries,” Keefe said.
That investment is one reason why the tax credit portion of the Inflation Reduction Act has garnered support from Republican politicians.
A group of 18 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson in August urging him not to allow the clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act to be repealed.
Those Republicans don’t necessarily support the full Inflation Reduction Act, but they recognize that the tax credits have benefited their communities.
“Today, many U.S. companies are already using sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed bipartisan support historically – to make major investments in new U.S. energy infrastructure,” the Republicans wrote. “We hear from industry and our constituents who fear the energy tax regime will once again be turned on its head due to Republican repeal efforts. Prematurely repealing energy tax credits, particularly those which were used to justify investments that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing. A full repeal (of the Inflation Reduction Act) would create a worst-case scenario where we would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return.”
DesJardins said advocates will have to wait and see if those Republicans stand by the clean energy tax credits in the future, but he said the letter is a good sign that there is a real interest in keeping the tax credits in place.
It is that bipartisan support for the clean energy tax credits, including some that make it easier for people to afford rooftop solar, that makes DesJardins skeptical that they will be rolled back under a future Trump administration. He said he can see other parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that are not quite as visible and don’t impact as many people being repealed.
“I think there could be some parallels to this and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in that, you know, people were against it, but as they saw the benefits, there were some people who changed their perspectives,” he said.
He said as the Inflation Reduction Act’s impacts continue to grow, he anticipates the opposition will decline.
Keefe said that one of the top issues for voters this election was the economy.
“If (elected leaders) are interested in making America more competitive with the rest of the world if they’re interested in bringing jobs and opportunities to states and communities—including many that were bypassed by previous economic transitions, we’re talking about rural places in Georgia and New Mexico and North Carolina and Ohio, where these projects are going—then it would be crazy for them to roll back these policies,” he said.
He said that if the tax credits are rolled back “it’s not going to hurt the hippies and environmentalists that live in San Francisco or New York. It’s going to hurt working class people in New Mexico. It’s going to hurt working class people in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and all the other places that voted for these officials to take office in Washington.”
The energy transition is not going to stop, but could be slowed
Going forward, the renewable energy industry is facing the possibility of tariffs as well as the rollback of incentives. But that doesn’t mean that the clean energy transition will come to a halt.
“In the solar industry, we’ve been through lots of ups and downs over the almost 15 years that I’ve been involved in it,” DesJardins said.
He said companies that are resourceful, strong and agile are able to make adjustments.
“Unfortunately, there will be some people that will be able to adjust better than others, but I think our industry in general is very resilient, and I think we’ll see you see that moving forward,” he said.
DesJardins pointed out that when Trump was campaigning in 2016 he said he would bring coal back. But no new coal plants are opening in the United States because they are no longer cost effective.
Keefe also said that the Trump administration is not going to halt the transition.
“I think it’s important to note that the clean economy today is not the clean economy of when Donald Trump was in office,” Keefe said. “The technology has gotten better. The momentum is clearly there. The demand is there. Nobody wants to pay more for energy than they have to. And right now, hands down, without doubt, the cheapest power available is solar and wind.”
He said the Inflation Reduction Act provided clarity around federal policies. He said the uncertainty around the future of the landmark legislation could lead companies to reevaluate where they’re investing their money or building factories.
“I think that the new administration and the new Congress certainly has the opportunity, and has said that they will try to at least slow the growth of the clean economy,” Keefe said. “I don’t think they’ll stop it—I hope they don’t stop it—but they definitely have the opportunity to slow it. And that’s again, just bad news for the entire country, but especially the working people in many of them, in Republican states that elected them to represent them in Washington.”
In the end, Keefe said the tax credits should not be a partisan issue.
“There should be nothing political or partisan about creating jobs, driving economic growth, making America more competitive. And that’s what we’re talking about here,” he said.
Keefe said the Inflation Reduction Act gave the United States the chance to catch up with other countries when it comes to building a cleaner economy.
“America has been playing catch up to the rest of the world on clean energy for too long,” he said.
Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, the majority of solar panels or batteries came from China. Now companies that manufacture solar panels or other components are moving to New Mexico and other parts of the United States. Ebon Solar announced in August that it will be building photovoltaic cells in Albuquerque.
“Since the IRA passed, we now have more than 50 solar panel factories being built in America,” Keefe said. “We have about 50 battery factories being built in America. And we’re finally being able to compete on the international market, or getting in the game in the international market.”
New Mexico Foundation for Open Government announces new executive director - Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government’s (FOG) Board of Directors announced Thursday that Christine Barber will be the organization’s new executive director starting Nov. 25.
FOG is a New Mexico nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that serves the open government interests of the public, business community, elected officials, journalists and lawyers.
“Transparency and the public’s right to know are coming under attack from numerous fronts,” Jessica Onsurez, president of the Board of Directors, said in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome Christine onboard at this critical time as FOG takes on these challenges.”
Barber will replace Melanie Majors, who is retiring from the position she’s held since 2018. Majors also served as a board member of FOG and has more than 35 years of communications experience.
“Melanie not only has years of outstanding service to the FOG community, and she has built on our strong foundation allowing us to move to the future,” Onsurez said.
Barber was an executive director for two non-profit organizations that provide services to marginalized individuals. She was also a reporter at the Gallup Independent, the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal.
Barber has won awards from the New Mexico Press Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors and New Mexico Press Women. She is also a published and award-winning author.
Protesters swamp APS board meeting over LGBTQ books - KOAT-TV, KUNM News
The Albuquerque Public Schools board meeting Wednesday night was swamped with protesters and counter protesters over banning books that contain LGTBQ topics, which the district is neither doing nor considering.
KOAT-TV reports hundreds of people, both in support and against banning the books, gathered outside district headquarters. They were there in response to the attendance of traveling North Carolina-based Pastor John Amanchukwu, who Legacy Church had invited to the city.
The school board capped the number of community members allowed inside. Around 40 people addressed the board, including Amanchukwu, though most in support of LGBTQ books in schools.
In his short statement to the board, Amanchukwu called APS the, "P. Diddy of the American education system,” referring to the hip-hop mogul who was charged this year with sex trafficking and other offenses.
He told the board, “Boys are going to school wearing thongs and crop tops,” which he called “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, another pastor, Sarah TevisTownes of Good Shepherd Church, also spoke. She told KOAT that she attended the meeting in support of LGBTQ representation in school books as a means of reducing suicide risk.
APS Board President Danielle Gonzales said in a statement Thursday that, “The APS Board is not banning books, is not repealing protections for LGBTQIA+ youth, and is not allowing out-of-state political extremists to drive our agenda.”
University of New Mexico graduate workers demand administration to stop using deadnames - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A union representing graduate student workers at the University of New Mexico is demanding that the institution stop forcing transgender students to use their deadnames in internal systems, including email and course registration.
The group, known as United Graduate Workers at UNM, started distributing a petition calling on the school administration to recognize trans people’s chosen names and gender markers this week.
“It’s so painful for a lot of trans people to be referred to as their previous name that people call it ‘deadnaming,’” teaching assistant and union leader Max Pagano said Wednesday, the end of Transgender Awareness Week. “It’s such a denial of basic personhood to not be called the name that you want to be called.”
Pagano said the system students, faculty and graduate teaching assistants use to register for classes allows them to change the displayed name but it resets every semester.
“It’s not easy to figure out how to change it, so most people don’t even know how,” they said.
Other graduate workers told Pagano they set up their official university email addresses with their chosen names this year, but about a month into the semester, without any warning or consent, the names associated with those email addresses were all reverted to their legal ones.
The union said in a news release that this contradicts UNM policy that prohibits gender-based discrimination and commits the school to respecting people’s preferred form of self-identification, “including a name other than a legal first name and the pronoun that aligns with their gender identity.”
The union also suggested that the university is violating a 2019 state law which allowed New Mexicans to designate an “X” gender marker on state documents for those who are nonbinary or prefer not to disclose their gender.
However, the union said in the five years since the law was passed, the University of New Mexico has not updated their internal systems to allow for an “X” gender marker for students and employees.
Cinnamon Blair, a spokesperson for UNM, said Wednesday that while every UNM system may not have the technical capability of supporting affirmed names and pronouns, the school has “made strides in enabling this functionality wherever possible.”
“While we have made progress in supporting preferred names and pronouns, we acknowledge that there may be areas where our implementation can be improved,” Blair said. “Like many institutions, UNM faces complex challenges in fully integrating these functions across all our systems and processes.”
Blair said the school’s information technology workers are “actively engaged in this process and working to identify and address these limitations.”
“We remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where all individuals feel respected and valued, and we will continue to work diligently toward fully implementing our policies and improving our systems to support this goal,” she said.
This doesn’t just affect trans people, Pagano said, it also affects anyone who gets married and changes their name or international students who choose an English name as opposed to the one they’re given in their native language.
UNM grad students are taking action as transgender rights come under attack at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday banned transgender women from using women’s restrooms in parts of the federal Capitol complex. Johnson’s order followed the election this month of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a Delaware Democrat who will become the first openly trans member of Congress.
The advocacy group LGBTQ+ Victory Institute called the Republican Johnson’s order “bigoted and transphobic” and noted Wednesday was Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The Human Rights Campaign reported Tuesday that 36 transgender people have died violently in the past year.
“It’s been really disturbing to see the way that attacks on trans people has become one of the hot button issues or talking points among conservatives right now,” Pagano said. “In light of this, it’s especially important for UNM to step up and affirm their commitment to their marginalized students.”
New Mexico Attorney General calls on Congress to pass KOSA - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
More than 30 attorneys general from across the country, including New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, sent a letter to Congress urging them to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
KOSA seeks to protect children from harm online.
“We are acutely aware of the threats minors face on social media,” the letter states. “Many social media platforms target minors, resulting in a national youth mental health catastrophe. These platforms make their products addictive to minor users, and then profit from selling minor user data to advertisers. These platforms fail to disclose the addicting nature of their products, nor the harms associated with increased social media use. Instead, minor users receive endless tailored and toxic content.”
KOSA seeks to require social media platforms to utilize mandatory default safety settings for child users, addiction prevention measures such as allowing young users and their parents or guardians the option to disable features that promote endless scrolling and enable parents and guardians to use tools that can identify harmful actions and better ways to report dangerous content.
“Every day that Congress delays is another day children are exposed to harmful content that threatens their mental health and wellbeing,” Torrez said in a press release. “We cannot allow profits to come before the safety of our kids. It’s time for Congress to act and give families the tools they need to protect their children online.”
Torrez and the New Mexico Department of Justice filed suit against Meta in 2023. The case is expected to go to trial in 2025.
New study shows voting for Native Americans is harder than ever - By Graham Lee Brewer, Associated Press
A new study has found that systemic barriers to voting on tribal lands contribute to substantial disparities in Native American turnout, particularly for presidential elections.
The study, released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, looked at 21 states with federally recognized tribal lands that have a population of at least 5,000 and where more than 20% of residents identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Researchers found that between 2012 and 2022, voter participation in federal elections was 7 percentage points lower in midterms and 15 percentage points lower in presidential elections than among those living off tribal lands in the same states.
Earlier studies show voter turnout for communities of color is higher in areas where their ethnic group is the majority, but the latest research found that turnout was the lowest on tribal lands that have a high concentration of Native Americans, the Brennan Center said.
"There's something more intensely happening in Native American communities on tribal land," said Chelsea Jones, a researcher on the study.
Jones said the study suggests some barriers may be insurmountable in predominately Native communities due to a lack of adequate polling places or access to early and mail-in ballots. Many residents on tribal lands have nontraditional addresses, meaning they don't have street names or house numbers, making mail-in voting even more difficult. As a result, many Native American voters rely on P.O. boxes, but the study notes that several jurisdictions will not mail ballots to P.O. boxes.
Long distances to the polls that do exist on tribal lands and little to no public transportation creates additional hurdles for Native American voters. In far-flung Alaska Native villages, polling places sometimes simply don't open if there's no one available to run an election, and severe weather can make absentee voting unreliable, The Associated Press reported last month.
"When you think about people who live on tribal lands having to go 30, 60, 100 miles (up to 160 kilometers) to cast a ballot, that is an extremely limiting predicament to be in," Jones said. "These are really, truly severe barriers."
Additionally, Jones said they found Native American voters were denied the ability to vote using their tribal IDs in several places, including in states where that is legally allowed. All of these roadblocks to the ballot can create a sense of distrust in the system, which could contribute to lower turnout, Jones said.
The Brennan Center study also highlights on ongoing issue when it comes to understanding how or why Native Americans vote: a lack of good data.
"There are immense data inequities when it comes to studying Native American communities, especially as it pertains to politics," Jones said.
Native American communities are often overlooked when it comes to polling data and sometimes when they are included those studies do not reflect broader trends for Indigenous voters, said Stephanie Fryberg, the director of the Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity Center, which studies systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous people.
"Generally speaking, polling is not well positioned to do a good job for Indian Country," said Fryberg, who is also a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. "There are ideas that are held up as the gold standard about how polling works that don't work for Indian Country because of where we live, because of how difficult it is to connect to people in our community."
Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, was one of several Indigenous researchers who denounced a recent exit poll conducted by Edison Research that found 65% of Native American voters who participated said they voted for Donald Trump. The poll only surveyed 229 self-identified Native Americans, a sample size that she said is too small for an accurate reading, and none of the jurisdictions in the poll were on tribal lands.
"Right there, you're already eliminating a powerful perspective," Fryberg said.
The Indigenous Journalists Association labelled that polling data as "highly misleading and irresponsible," saying it has led "to widespread misinformation."
In a statement to the Associated Press, Edison Research acknowledged that the polling size is small, but said the "goal of the survey is to represent the national electorate and to have enough data to also examine large demographic and geographic subgroups." The survey has a potential sampling margin of error of plus or minus 9%, according to the statement.
"Based on all of these factors, this data point from our survey should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote," the statement reads.
Native Americans are not just part of an ethnic group, they also have political identities that come with being citizens of sovereign nations. Fryberg said allowing those surveyed to self-identify as Native Americans, without follow-up questions about tribal membership and specific Indigenous populations, means that data cannot accurately capture voting trends for those communities.
Both Fryberg and Jones said that in order to create better data on and opportunities for Native Americans to vote, researchers and lawmakers would have to meet the specific needs of Indigenous communities. Jones said passage of the Native American Voting Rights Act, a bill that has stalled in Congress, would ensure equitable in-person voting options in every precinct on tribal lands.
"This is not an issue that we see across the country," Jones said. "It's very specific to tribal lands. So we need provisions that address that uniquely."
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Graham Lee Brewer is an Oklahoma City-based member of the AP's Race and Ethnicity team.
Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record high - By Isabella Volmert, Associated Press
Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.
While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling about a third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called.
"We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal," said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP.
The number of Republican women, at least 851, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024.
"But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women," Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said.
STATES THAT GAINED WOMEN IN LEGISLATURES
By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers.
In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado had previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year.
The states follow Nevada, which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity.
Women in California's Senate will make up the chamber's majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its total number by at least nine.
States that lost women in legislatures
At least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina.
Earlier this year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate.
No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state's registered voters.
Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority.
A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina's lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature.
West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers.
WHY IT MATTERS
Many women, lawmakers and experts say that women's voices are needed in discussions on policy especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades.
Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education and childcare.
"The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away," Walsh said. "And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever."
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This version corrects the approximate total of women in state legislatures nationwide to be about a third.
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