Native Vote, Native Voice: Battleground States - Wisconsin

This episode explores the Native American vote in the 2022 U.S. presidential election, particularly in the swing state of Wisconsin. The host interviews Marlon White Eagle, a reporter with Native News Online, about outreach efforts by the campaigns to tribal leaders and how Native voters are engaging. The discussion also features insights from Native News Online publisher Levi Rickert on polling data showing a tight race for the Native vote nationally. The podcast provides an in-depth look at the potential impact of the Native vote in a key swing state.

This podcast is produced by Native News Online, with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation, the National Congress of American Indians, and Four Directions.

Follow us on Facebook, X, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok! For all of our coverage visit www.nativenewsonline.net

Transcript

This is the native vote. Native voice Podcast. I'm Sean Griswold. Today, on election day, more than 80 million people in the United States have already voted. Expectations from key swing states like Wisconsin are that the early vote will help determine a clear picture for who will be the next president. The 80 million ballots cast before today are more than half of the overall turnout in 2020 when 66% of eligible Americans voted in Wisconsin, more than 1.5 million people voted early. Both campaigns for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump spent the final days and hours pitching Wisconsin voters to help us understand this, we hear from Marlon White Eagle, a reporter with native news online and former leader of the Ho Chunk nation, one of 11 federally recognized tribes in the state. He'll help us understand what are the issues that native voters in Wisconsin cared about and what drove them to the polls that could have an impact on who will be the next President of the United States.
All right,
we're now joined with Marlon, White Eagle reporter with native news online Marlin. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us where you're calling from. Yeah,
my name is Marlon White Eagle. I'm Ho Chunk over here in Wisconsin. And you know, I've been working with Native news online for a lot of the election coverage. So, you know, it's been an enjoyable time. You know, dusting off my writing skills. I previously, I was our Ho Chunk nation editor of our tribal newspaper, the Ho Chunk Ward, but haven't done that in a few years, and I got elected as our Ho Chunk nation president. And, you know, I took a year off from that, went back to school, and now I'm, you know, getting dusting off my journalism, you know, skills,
yeah, I'm always curious about how tribal leaders feel when it comes or at least their interaction when it comes to election season, all the candidates come visit. Everybody has something to say. They all want votes. They're all making promises. But you've kind of seen it from all the different angles, like you just mentioned. How are you perceiving and what have you seen out of this, out of the election so far, when it comes to outreach to tribal leaders and tribal nations from the presidential candidates?
Yeah, I think there, you know, there's, obviously, we see a stark contrast between the two, the two tickets, the, you know, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. And that seems to follow through to, you know, through to the campaigning side, where, you know, on the Harris side, we get, you know, there's some inclusion, you know, a lot of inclusion and availability. Where, with the Republican side, you know, where it's difficult to attend the events, and you know, it's if you're not in the in the group, you're you know, you're not, you're kind of not included.
And Wisconsin being a significant battleground state, not only are native voters that are being targeted, but the everybody in the state has been you've been at rallies for both parties. Why don't you share what you've seen from the Republican rallies in Wisconsin over the past couple months? Yeah, there's
a lot. You know, I went to Donald Trump. He came here to Waunakee, which is right outside of Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital. And when we, when I went over there, you know, it was a limited amount. It was a small venue that he was at. It was manufacturing plant that he was speaking inside of. And then, you know, I didn't get there early enough as a not be able to get a press credential. So I went as a, signed up through their link to attend and, you know, just to get the message what, what he's talking about. And there, you know, he talked for almost a good hour and a half at the at the Waunakee event. But it was interesting that he was the first Republican to come to, you know, Madison here is Dane County, and we haven't had anyone a Republican presidential nominee here since Bob Dole back in the when was that? In the late 80s, early 90s? So, so you can see that they're working on, um. Mixing up the, you know, trying to, you know, reach across the aisle, you know, in terms of voters, and attract some new Democratic voters. And likewise, you know, we've seen Harris do it, you know, she went up to, there's the birthplace of the Republican Party nearby here in Wisconsin. And she went up there with Liz Cheney. And, you know, they did, they did the campaign rally up there. So we see, see that quite a bit where, you know, they they're going into not only the safe area where they can rely on the votes, and, you know, they get a lot of mobilization, energized voters, but they're also going to not so friendly territory, traditionally, you know, opposite party territory. So it's seems to be a good strategy. They're getting a little more in in depth, or, you know, in their campaigning, okay?
And something that I think is interesting here is that the messaging for topics on native on Indian Country, where he we hear a lot about sovereignty, treaty and trust obligations, boosting and enhancing and supporting government to government relationships. You know, the war in Gaza, all kinds of different things that we're hearing a lot from the Democratic side. You know, there's visit to Gila River in Window Rock where, you know, vice presidential candidate Tim waltz hit all the notes of those of those topic points. And then, you know, couple days before that, President Biden spoke to those topics as well. We're not hearing much of that about that from the Donald Trump side. Have you heard anything from the Republicans and your reporting and visiting some of these events from the Republican Party that is speaking to Indian country? What are they saying? If anything, they about topics that would speak to NATO,
yeah. I think the the one opportunity where I that was available was at the Republican National Convention down the road, here in Milwaukee, and there, there, there was a team of congressional members that included Mark Wayne Mullen from Oklahoma, and there was a few from North Carolina as well as Nevada and Montana. So they were available in, you know, they talked about economy, they talked about wanting to help tribes. And you know, Senator Mullen was saying that, you know, former President Trump had contacted, contacted him directly, saying, you know, we need to move faster on reaching the the native tribes and trying to do more for the native tribes. So, you know, that was the message that we heard from the senator there. And, you know, it sound like a lot of it was related to Lumbee recognition. You know, there were some talk of that from the North Carolina Senator. I think it's Tom Tilson. Maybe I'm blanking on the name right now, but, but that was some of the, you know, but they were genuinely, you know, saying, you know, if you're from Wisconsin, you know, we want to be your, your your third Senator, you know, in the in the Senate, as well as the other representatives in in the Congress, on the House side, you know, they wanted to reach across and work with tribes.
Yeah, and I remember being at the we met at the RNC in Milwaukee, and were some of the only natives there, like I mentioned to Levi earlier, who was also there with us, but yeah, I do recall being in that meeting and the concept of sovereignty, when it comes to building economies, seemed to be where everybody was merging and meeting on the Republicans and native voters. And we saw tribal leaders there at the RNC say, let us do what we need to do, which is provide economic freedom for our our nations. Now, how it gets there with the Republican administration? Details like that weren't really sorted out. I didn't hear anything specific, but it's fascinating to know that whomever is going to be the president, tribal nations have to work with that group. And that's the tone we heard from Native people who were at the Republican National Convention. Like this could be an administration we have to work with. I'm curious, from that view, you know, we did see forest county Potawatomi executive James Crawford. He's the chairman of. Local chairman for that group out there. He spoke at the RNC center stage. Have you heard any reaction to that appearance, or what he had to say to the Republican delegation that night?
Yeah, I think that was, it was good to see the presence, you know, a native presence at the RNC. So knowing that, you know, essentially, he welcomed, welcomed the Republican National Committee to Milwaukee, which is Potawatomi, Ho Chunk Ho Chunk territory, ancestral land. And it's always good just to see tribes, tribal nations, you know, spotlighted on a national stage. So I think there's some, some appreciation for that, that you know we're we're being included and and that you know they're making the time to hear what we have to say. Okay, and I
can hear how your dog also wants to be included in the conversation as well, too. But voting is a family affair, right? And that includes our animals and everybody else that we're looking to take care of. Let's end on the note about early voting. Have you early voted in Wisconsin and tell us about it? Yeah,
yeah, I tend to early vote. I never know what, what's going to be coming up, you know? So in the primary, I asked my wife and the kids that can vote, and one of the boys, he just turned 18, so we got him and the other child that's at home, that's over 18, and we all went, went out, we did our early absentee voting in the primary. And that was, you know, good to see them. See them there. Good opportunity for a photo. You know, some family history, you know, letting them, teaching them that, you know, we want to get to the polls. We want to make our voice heard on who we want to be setting the policies for, you know, for people like us with, you know, the dual citizen of tribal citizen as well as United States citizen. And you know, we could throw a third on there for the state representatives that we have so
cool, well, modern, and, and, and
also in this we did, we Wisconsin. Here we started early, male, male, absentee. So I did that process. And that started in September, and it was really simple. I just went to my vote.org. Requested it, requested the ballot, got the ballot, and filled it out, mailed it back, and it's simple,
cool. Well, thanks for sharing that. I know it's the the early voting is what I have going on here. I voted early in person in New Mexico, as I mentioned in our last episode, it's nice to have that responsibility out of the way and get to focus on the reporting and see what's going on here. And like a lot of people, will be watching Wisconsin, good luck on election night. Hope you're safe out there, and we'll be tracking Wisconsin, especially how the native vote in Wisconsin impacts those states electoral votes. Marlon, thank you so much for joining us.
Oh yeah, thanks for having me.
Now we go to a conversation with Levi richer, publisher for native news online. We're going to discuss polling done by the medal School of Journalism at Northwestern University on behalf of native news online, it shows what issues matter to native voters in this election, and we're gonna discuss why native voters are in support for Harris according to this poll. All right, Levi Ricker, here we are a couple days recording this the weekend before the election, and we're gonna have this out the day before the election. But really, Levi, we're almost to the end of it. And you know, you have some news to share about, some polling done with native news online. Do you want to start there and tell us about what
you got? Sure it was a polls. I just want to let everybody know that our snapshots of the time and time period was mid to late October, and Kamala Harris is winning Indian country at this point, and that is opposite what our polls showed before, but she's up by three, and still was in the margin of error. But I think it's interesting. The presidential debate really made the difference.
It's really interesting to see how that's so close. Still, any ideas to I mean, and you mentioned earlier, Donald Trump was in your initial poll leading an Indian country in the respondents that that your polling came from. And we should be clear for people this, this is a poll conducted through the medal School of Journalism at Northwestern University and sampled likely Native American voters. But the initially came out for Trump, and you meant. To the debate, is there anything else you think stuck out that put this over even narrowly for Harris with among Indian Country voters?
Yeah, I really do think that people are paying more and more attention as the election approaches. I for one, think that elections in America last way too long. Election seasons Europeans, they can run six to eight weeks, and they seem to have no problem picking, uh, very adequate leaders. So but as, you know, as a journalist, I think, I don't know if you are exhausted song, but I'm pretty exhausted right now, and I'll happy. I'll be happy when it's over. You
know that exhaustion is is certainly there for me. I completely do feel it, and, you know, the amount of hours and the attention we're paying to this race and and it's interesting about that European cycle, I think you and I have even talked about this. That's something that Harris kind of had to do. You know, she came out to the ticket in the summer, late summer, and has had to spend that entire time building her own identity as as Kamala Harris, not Joe Biden's vice president. And so, yeah, what have you seen in all that, just by watching that? I mean, I've never seen a candidate have to do that running for president. You know, it's, it's always months and months of campaigning. But she's been a in a very unique situation. Well,
last time in 2020 the last presidential the Biden Harris ticket put out a 15 page plan or guide of what safe said they would do for Indian country. So I have been, quite frankly, asking over and over and over the Harris campaign, even the Democratic National Committee, and then it's actually the Harris campaign that runs this, where that document is, and it wasn't till I talked to Assistant Secretary Brian Newman, who kind of explained it to me, said, Levi, she doesn't have that kind of document, because it took us about a year, a year and a half to complete that, because they had gathered so much Information, and he had worked on it prior to 2020, election that came out maybe six or eight weeks before the election. You will not get that this year. Just was not time to compile that. And instead of just saying, Well, we're going to do the same things or update it, I think that they do have one or two page fact sheet on the on the Harris web page. So anyone listening wants to go there, they can look at that however. That is, I would say that's one of the biggest differences Sean is, and you're exactly right. She's had to do a whole lot of things in terms of policy development and creating stances on policies that typically candidates have many, many months to do, and she just had three short months,
and you know, with that short period of time, there certainly has been an attention and and an outreach from the Harris campaign to native voters. She's been in she's been in all these swing states, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Native leaders are there presently. She was in Phoenix yesterday, and a bunch of Native leaders went and talked to her. We said yesterday as yesterday, as as on Halloween, and Native leaders were there. They were there to hear what she asked to say. And she's hitting the marks. You know, she, she, she speaks to tribal sovereignty as being key. You know, she speaks to government, to government relationships, and allowing tribal governments to build out what they need in order to become, you know, successful communities. You know the boarding school element that we heard from Joe Biden, while she hasn't publicly stated, hey, I'm going to continue the work. From this, the people that did all that work are there supporting her, and are her surrogates, and are telling people to vote for Harris, even Tim waltz, when we went to Window Rock is hitting all the same notes. I'm curious, from your experience in scene elections and just following presidential races, even without such a detailed plan, which I remember when we talked to Dr Aaron payment about that, and he mentioned how he was essential in bringing that up for the Biden campaign in 2020 and he also said timing was just an issue that went against Harrison this time. But even without that like detailed document and that plan in place, it still seems substantial to hear presidential candidates say things like sovereignty. Talk about government to government relationship, the things that we as Native people talk about every day. What have you felt? How have you viewed that in this election, specifically with Harris? I
think that is a I think that Harris has been around Native American issues long enough now, and a lot of times she gets criticized for being a novice and and I know that the other side really pushes that like she doesn't know what she's doing. But if you think about it, here's a woman who was an attorney general, so she dealt with the tribes in California. She was the Vice President, or she was a US senator. I should say she dealt with the, what 109 tribes are there. About federally recognized tribes in California. These tribes always approach senatorial offices, so she was part of that process. US, and then as vice president for the last what four years and Doctor payment did mention in a op ed that he wrote for native news online that he worked with her when he was a tribal citizen, or excuse me, tribal chairman, and on broadband issues, and she really understands the lack of broadband coverage in Indian country, and when there was a pot of money designated, she went and got like, $2 billion more for she saw the shortfall. So I think, you know, it gives me a lot of comfort in that she really, really has learned along the way, and she's been kind of what they call it in business, on the job training sometimes, and I think that that gives me good comfort. And Sean, I know that you actually have covered, and you've watched the Trump campaign, and they will, they will utilize Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, out of Oklahoma, who's a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, but they don't really address Native American issues at those campaigns. They may mention it, and I guess some people would call it window dressing. So what are your thoughts on that?
You know that I appreciate you asking me about that, because I think why? What connects to your response about Harris? And you know, we're talking about this, this, this issue she had of having to learn a lot quickly and just build out a platform as a presidential candidate. But I think the willingness to learn, the effort to learn, the approach to learn and learn fast, is something that you don't quite see as starkly with Donald Trump and his campaign. He is a person that seems to be particularly with the world view, that this is the way it is. It's the Trump way. And you listen to his surrogates and his supporters, they do hinge on every word he has to say, and his opinion on things can change depending on what event he's at. So even in pinning down a strategic platform or policy platform from the Trump campaign on Indian Country is nearly impossible as it is with almost every issue, because it changes depending on what he says. Supporters may agree with one thing he said, but he might change his mind in another campaign. But one thing that really sticks out that is consistent with the messaging you hear when he does have Republican Native Americans speak up, they speak to sovereignty, but they speak to sovereignty in the span of economic development, strictly that, and when it comes to economic development that is such a diverse space. And for tribal nations across this country, many with diverse portfolios that would surprise a lot of people, they would benefit from some of the business policies that Donald Trump would, that Donald Trump seems to promote. Now, one of the other key things that I've heard consistently from Republicans to a potential Trump administration is limiting the barriers, or at least they say, barriers of administrative barriers that cause economic development to fast track on tribal nations. You're talking about a permitting process to build a road that has to go through multiple jurisdictions. Federal Government may even accrue, may even require Congress to approve it, but what they see is Donald Trump and his effort to and he stated this publicly, and he and even in his prior administration, limit the amount of federal bureaucracy either by not staffing positions, not filling secretaries for positions, essentially not having department and agencies running to some that is an actual advantage, because they look at not having the bureaucracy there as potentially not having any oversight on some of these projects. And there are projects that are fast tracking, and I think oil and gas is the one that, while it's not as discussed as openly amongst Native issues, I think we see a very stark contrast of Native Americans support the environment and all environmental policies, and that includes, you know, almost a reversal of what the US domestic energy policy is, there are natives behind the scenes who are still also benefiting from it in one way or another. And we saw some of that here in New Mexico at the Trump rally. We're Donald Trump supporters who are Native American and the ones that we saw and we spoke with our employees who work in oil and gas fields, who would benefit directly from even more robust energy exploration, and that's their issue. So it's, it's and I think we know, bringing it back to how we started the conversation of the poll and that's being released, and how close it is this election has truly shown that the more you engage native voters in the process, the more native people become more involved and active, I truly think you're going to start seeing more diverse opinions on and reflection that as we are as a culture, non monolithic. A lot of natives are also not strictly blue ticket Democratic voters. There's a lot with a lot of different opinions and viewpoints that Republicans might be able to pick up on. You. We didn't see it quite that much this cycle, I think, but it is growing. And somebody like Senator Mullins is somebody who I think sees that opportunity, and I think it starts in the private sector. Yeah,
I think that the one thing I will say this, and as a journalist, I witness and I see it all the time. Native Americans are educated. They're sophisticated, to your point, they are seeing things, maybe from a different viewpoint than maybe 20 years ago even. And I'm not saying we were ignorant or stupid back then, but you see more and more Native Americans going and getting their degrees, being more involved with business, which actually, long term is going to help Indian Country?
Yeah, we're seeing the different generations now shift. We're seeing even and nationally as voters. I think one something that's prominent in a conversation we had when we started a lot of this podcast project was trying to understand the role of veterans, and the amount of veterans that exist in this country is actually going down, and veterans have been institutionally Democratic voters, going back to FDR, to Truman. These are people that taught this is how you vote Democrat. That generation is no longer around or is getting older and may not be participating as much, added to the feel that there's just not a large veteran population anymore, nationally, not just among Native people. And there's just, there's, there's, I think everything is almost flipped, in a way. We've heard this a lot of times, of the dynamics of just speaking to a military person, you would think that be a conservative principle. And while there are a lot of native people who are still military veterans, who may share conservative principles, they can go back and forth between supporting a Republican or a Democrat. And I think that just speaks to our very nature as Native people. We blend between multiple worlds, and I think our politics are starting to reflect that more.
I want to switch over to Wisconsin. I had a pretty cool experience couple weekends ago, and I was there for the native voter forum that was put on by four directions. And I was talking to a couple of tribal leaders and and others. And I was asking about early voting, because I just wanted to make sure people had a chance to vote or where they were on that issue. And Shannon Hosley, who is the president of the Stockbridge Munsee tribe there, said, Oh no, I want to experience it. I want to go to the polling station on the day of the election. I want to feel it. I want to experience it. I thought it was a really cool, cool response. And then, like the next day, Burton Warrington, who is a friend of mine, he's a tribal citizen of the prairie man my tribe, and he's actually half Menominee. He's done some really wonderful things up in Menominee Nation in Wisconsin because his wife was Menominee as well, and he's done some great things with language. But he said, Levi, I had my children go with me to the voting voting booth. He said, I want them to watch it. This is my responsibility as a father, to teach them. This is what we do. And I Sean, I'm so impressed with that. It was just like that is that is great parenting. Role models taking place, taking your children to the to the to the election polling station, so that they know that as they grow up, this is what we do. This is our responsibility as a native person. And you and I both know there's always discussion, why are you voting in the white man's election? If we can say it that way, well, and I'll tell them, If I'm a citizen, I'm a dual citizen, proud of it, of the United States, NY tribe, which happens to be prairie band, pot of water, me nation. And if I'm going to pay taxes and I have the right to vote, I'm going to vote at both tribal and the general elections and the non native elections. So I think that's that was really cool. I just wanted to pass it on to you about what's happening in Wisconsin. And there was this robust efforts to get to get out the vote, the gotb efforts happening in Wisconsin. They were in Judith. LeBlanc calls it moccases On the ground, and they actually had moccasins on the ground, knocking on doors, calling people, emailing their friends, texting their friends relatives. Are you voting? And I think that even now, in native news. We've written about developing a plan, a native a voting plan, a voting plan. And that may sound silly, but you know, a lot of times, I guess research shows those who have a voting plan tend to vote. Those who say, Oh man, I forgot about it. Was yesterday. Well, you may forget about it. Have a. Plan, and so I want to leave that with our listeners that develop a voting plan that may include stopping having lunch with your mother, who you haven't seen in a month, taking her along to the polls with you, or your auntie, or your sisters, brothers, cousins, whoever. But it could be fun. And I think that this message I want to leave. I still believe that we need to energize the vote at Native who's online. We've worked very hard to do that this election. I
think that's what's so exciting. Of seeing all these various groups who many of them are non partisan. They just want natives to go vote. Create a plan show the generation, younger generations. This is what we do. Either we, some of us, are starting new traditions by getting the mail in ballot sent to our house, having the all the ballot, putting it on the dinner table, making some stew and fry bread, and talking about what's on that ballot, having political discussions about the society and democracy we participate in. That's something we did this year. We looked at we did that, and that was a tradition that we can now start. And something that also stuck out to me, and I'm curious from from any of your Wisconsin conversations, one of the first Native people I saw on the campaigns, on the campaign trail was leader from the forest County, Potawatomi, James Crawford, who spoke at the Republican National Convention while he didn't come out and endorse the Republican ticket. He said, we're here to work with you if you're in office. But did you get any feedback or any thoughts to you know, Crawford's remarks in front of the RNC?
Well, and I think that from what I understand about the forest county Potawatomi, they're really strong believers that they need to contribute, donate to both parties and participate, talk to both parties, because especially in the blue states, where you just don't know from one election to the next which particular political party will control, that the House or The Senate with the state legislature, or even the gubernatorial seat. And so I think that some of the some of the tribes, no pun intended, play the cards real carefully, and they they know how to work both sides of the fence, and maybe in those cases, rightfully so, and they develop some friendships on both sides of the aisle. It
always comes down to me that no US president, regardless of the party, has ever met the treaty and trust obligations to Native people in this country. And I think that's why Native nations know how to have to play politics and work both sides if they have to. It'll be interesting, definitely. And again, to me, shows the evolution of how Native people, native tribal leaderships, native governments, and just the regular person who's out there in the city just living life indigenously, how we're shaping and evolving our political identities
in this country. Sean, one thing that I really aware of. You hear it on the national television. You read in some of the national publications like The New York Times or The Washington Post, Washington Post that how different niche groups. And some people say niche, some say niche. I say niche, niche groups can really make the difference. And I am convinced the Native American vote, the native vote, really can make a difference in certain locations. And I like this site up in Montana, which our friend, Senator Jon Tester, is in a very tight race with against Tim Sheehy. Well, two of his three previous elections, he was 50.1 and 50.3 and they could not even call that race until when the next morning, when the votes from Indian country came in, from the tribes, from the reservations, and the native vote put him over the top. And so you asked Senator Tester, does the native vote? He's going to say Most certainly. He's going to say absolutely. And so I think, I think that we could all cite different places. I know that Burton, over in Menominee, was telling me how in in 2020 Menominee tribe voted. I want to say it was like 91% for Joe Biden. And if you look at the margin of victory, as I recall, it was, what, 20,000 votes. And then you add several tribes in Wisconsin are 11 federally recognized tribes. We had all those votes up. That native vote is really helping to be the tipping point, I think, in some of these elections. And so I just can't emphasize enough and to get out and vote. And I'm not going to tell people how to vote, but I love, I love to borrow from what Larry Wright, the Executive Director of the National Congress American Indians has been saying all year long, don't necessarily think about the R for Republican, D for Democrat, I for Indian, he says, but you really want to vote I for the tribal sovereignty ticket, and think about which candidate is going to really work on the. The the areas of concern, the the issues that are really on the forefront of Native Americans. And we did it. Our poll says protected sacred sites, missing and murdered indigenous relatives, tribal sovereignty, tribal water settlement, rights, health equity, language preservation, food sovereignty. I put those on the order of what they how they came in. And you, if you think about that, there's a lot, there's a lot to think about and and it is like the number two issue of all issues that Native Americans come up with in our poll was, in fact, Indian Native American issues. So go out and vote. We encourage everybody to
vote. Levi, we'll talk after the election. We'll see how it all plays out. Thanks for joining talk to you again.
Good. I appreciate it,
and that'll do it for our episode here. Thank you listeners for tuning in to this episode of the native vote, native voice podcast. We will be back later this week with the recap on the results and how Indian Country shaped the elections in 2024 the native vote native voice podcast is produced by native news online with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation, The National Congress of American Indians and four directions.