This week, Deb Haaland was elected the first Native woman governor in U.S. history, and Peggy Flanagan became the first Native woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Their wins came in a year when 25 Native and Indigenous candidates ran for Congress, breaking the record of 21 set in 2020. 

Still, Native voters remain under-contacted. In 2024, half said no one had asked them to register or vote. As Native American Heritage Month continues this November, we look at the 2026 results, the outreach gap behind them, and what effective Native voter outreach takes.

Native Candidates Win Historic Races in the 2026 Midterms

At least 355 Native American and Indigenous candidates ran for local, state, and federal office this year, up from 253 in 2024. On election night, Peggy Flanagan, Deb Haaland, and Sharice Davids all won their races, expanding Native representation in the Senate, a governor’s office, and the House.

• Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Nation): Minnesota’s lieutenant governor beat Republican Michele Tafoya for the open U.S. Senate seat and became the first Native woman to serve in the Senate. Four enrolled citizens of Tribal nations served in the Senate before her, all of whom were men.
• Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna): The former Interior Secretary beat Republican Gregg Hull and will be the first Native woman to lead a state government in the U.S. About 12% of New Mexico residents are Native American, and Haaland directed Native voter outreach in the state for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.
• Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk Nation): The longest-serving Native woman in Congress secured a fifth term in Kansas’ 3rd District over Republican Eric Jenkins. Every reelection since her 2018 win has been decided by double digits.

Together, these wins put Native women in a governor’s office and in the Senate for the first time, and they cap a record year for Native candidates at every level of government. They also came in three states with very different electorates, and reaching Native voters in each one takes ongoing work.

The Native Voter Outreach Gap

Reaching Native voters takes dedicated, in-person work. Haaland has said campaigns need to “show up in Native communities and have face-to-face conversations” to reach Native and Indigenous individuals. It takes authentic and intentional outreach. The data shows how much of that work still remains. 

Access widens the gap. Many Native voters live on Tribal lands or in rural areas where homes often lack standard street addresses, and registration systems built around those addresses can shut them out. In those same counties, undeliverable mail triggered 87% of the notices election offices sent to confirm registrations in 2024, compared with 11% nationwide.

Outreach also has to speak to what Native voters weigh when they vote. In the 2024 American Electorate Voter Poll, cost of living was a top concern, and 78% also weighed Tribal issues, led by Tribal sovereignty and land rights. Closing the gap starts with listening to those priorities, and the Native American Rights Fund’s 2026 report on voting barriers points to three practices:

• Start early, because registration is the first place barriers show up.
• Partner with Tribal governments throughout the cycle, not in a single check-in.
• Use in-person and in-language outreach, since mail and online tools often fall short.

Organizing can be strengthened by paid media that reaches voters between conversations, with messages that reflect these priorities. That raises a practical question for campaigns: which channels reach which Native voters, and where to place them.

Where Native Voters Live Shapes How to Reach Them

Native voters are not a monolith, and the gaps above look different depending on where voters live. About one in eight Native people live on reservations or other trust lands, while the rest live off Tribal lands, mostly in urban areas. According to NTIA’s latest Internet Use Survey, 22% of Native Americans are smartphone-only internet users. On Tribal lands, 87.6% of people had access to fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps, compared with 96.9% nationwide, and only about 57% of residents in rural Tribal areas could get fixed wireline service at those speeds.

Combined with the mail problems above, no single channel reaches every household, so the channel mix has to follow the connection.

Building a Native Voter Outreach
Media Mix

Households with home broadband are natural CTV audiences, while smartphone-only households are better reached through mobile video and digital audio. In 2024, DSPolitical supported that layered approach for Chris Stearns (Navajo) in his Washington State House race outside Seattle, pairing CTV, video, and audio around his record on equity and justice. He now serves as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Washington House.

Reaching the right voters is only part of the work. Campaigns also need messaging that speaks to Tribal sovereignty and land rights alongside cost of living. Paid media then adds contact between in-person conversations, while Tribal government partnerships, in-language outreach, and Native-owned media reach the households digital will not. Native-led groups and Tribal governments, including Alaska’s Get Out the Native Vote initiative, have long done this work, and campaigns that start early and stay engaged between cycles can build on it.