An all-time high of at least 170 Native American, Native Hawaiians, and Native Alaskans are on ballots for Tuesday’s presidential election.
That’s according to a database collected by the group Advance Native Political Leadership.
The organization has been tracking Indigenous candidates since 2016, from school boards all the way to Congress.
Yet, observers say more work needs to be done to have proportional representation for Native American communities.
Advance Native Political Leadership has identified 347 current Native elected officials — less than 0.1% of some 519,000 elected offices nationwide.
The organization estimates 17,000 elected officials are needed to achieve parity based on the Native American portion of the U.S. population, which is 3%.
At least 246 Native candidates, including 140 incumbents, ran for office in 25 states this year.
Of those, 74 already won or lost their races, withdrew or were disqualified, and are not on the November ballot.
Of those who identified with a political party, most were Democrats. Over half of the candidates running this year are female.
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