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      Indigenous Voters Mobilize in Midterm Elections

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      ANCHORAGE — Tesla Cox’s eyes filled with tears as she thought about watching her state elect its first Alaska Native to Congress this year, and what it could mean for the future.“If we can mobilize our people, we can really shift the way that our world is working for us,” said Ms. Cox, 31, who is Tlingit and gathered late last month with other Alaska Natives for a three-day convention, where their influence as a voting bloc was a major topic of discussion.“Our next steps are not just getting our people to go and vote, but getting our people to be the people that people vote for,” she said.Indigenous voters have become a major power center across the country in recent years, including in 2020, when the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous voters helped flip Arizona for President Biden. This Congress saw the first Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native elected and seated alongside enrolled members of tribes from Oklahoma and Kansas. The Senate confirmed Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, as the first Native American to serve as interior secretary.It is a trend that is expected to continue on Tuesday, when races that will determine control of both the House and Senate may come down to razor-thin margins in states with sizable Indigenous populations. There are nearly 90 Indigenous candidates on state and national ballots, according to a database maintained by Indian Country Today, a nonprofit news organization. Those candidates include Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who is likely to become the first Cherokee senator since 1925.“We’ve made a lot of progress in the country and we’ve made progress in the judiciary and in Congress and across the federal administrations,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. “For us not to turn out during the midterms would send an unfortunate message to policymakers that our numbers aren’t there.”Alaska Native corporations have offered key endorsements that could help Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska, a Democrat who is Yup’ik, and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican who was formally adopted by a clan of the Tlingit tribe, keep their seats in Congress and overcome conservative challengers.Representative Mary Peltola, Democrat of Alaska, is the first Alaska Native in Congress.Ash Adams for The New York TimesSenator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is the top Republican on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.Brian Adams for The New York TimesThe five major tribal nations in Oklahoma have offered a rare joint endorsement of the Democratic candidate for governor, jolting the race into a tossup, while the Cherokee Nation has reignited its campaign for the United States to fulfill a nearly 200-year-old treaty and seat Kimberly Teehee as their congressional delegate.“We’ve been in a process of people awakening to the power of our collective voice,” said Judith LeBlanc, of the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma, and the executive director of Native Organizers Alliance. “That collective voice can manifest itself as political power on Election Day and in between election days on the issues that we’re advocating for.”The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.House Democrats: Several moderates elected in 2018 in conservative-leaning districts are at risk of being swept out. That could cost the Democrats their House majority.A Key Constituency: A caricature of the suburban female voter looms large in American politics. But in battleground regions, many voters don’t fit the stereotype.Crime: In the final stretch of the campaigns, politicians are vowing to crack down on crime. But the offices they are running for generally have little power to make a difference.Abortion: The fall of Roe v. Wade seemed to offer Democrats a way of energizing voters and holding ground. Now, many worry that focusing on abortion won’t be enough to carry them to victory.The assertion of political power and sovereignty comes as the Supreme Court seems poised to challenge some tribal authorities and protections and Indigenous voters face steep barriers to the ballot box. They could not vote in every state until 1957 and now face increasingly restrictive voting laws passed by state legislatures. Distances to polling stations still could require round trips of 100 or more miles for some voters.In May, a federal judge ruled that South Dakota violated portions of the National Voter Registration Act, which requires state officials to provide voter registration renewal guidance at several state-run agencies.“The majority of voting access laws that were passed since 2020 have all been passed in states where the Native vote is politically significant and it therefore targets Native voters,” Ms. LeBlanc said. “And it has a big impact, especially when it comes to early voting, access to voting, voting locations and transportation to voting locations.”Beyond representation in the highest seats of government, there has been an increased acknowledgment of needs of tribal communities across the country, though lawmakers say far more needs to be done to fulfill their obligations.A document circulated by Democrats on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee noted that lawmakers had approved the largest direct investment in tribal governments in American history in 2021 with passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus law, and set aside billions of dollars for tribal health care, housing, broadband and transportation. Tribal nations and villages will receive funds through a new program created under the Biden administration to help them relocate and avoid the toll of climate change.People attending the Alaska Native Federation candidates forum in Anchorage last month. All of the top candidates in congressional elections made appearances.Brian Adams for The New York Times“It’s a long game and change doesn’t happen overnight,” said Allie Redhorse Young, of the Navajo Nation and founder of Protect the Sacred, who led voters on horseback to polling stations in 2020 and will lead a similar ride this year. “But as we continue to show up and as we continue to make our voices heard and ensure that our votes are counted, the more we will invest in this change.”In 1955, only one Alaska Native was elected to serve among the 55 delegates at the state’s constitutional convention. Sixty-six years later, Ms. Peltola made history in September as the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, when she was sworn in to finish the remainder of Representative Don Young’s term following his death. She is running for her first full term representing a state where Alaska Natives account for about 15 percent of the population.“It’s a remarkable evolution, really,” said William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, 81, a Democrat who is Inupiaq and served as a state senator. He was among those who were instrumental in the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which set aside about 44 million acres for a dozen regional native corporations in 1971 and elevated Alaska Natives into a pivotal role for the new state’s economy.“Our people have seen the importance of participating in the political process and have done so extensively,” he added.Mr. Hensley, like others who gathered for three days in Anchorage at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention, pointed to the role of Alaska Natives in helping Ms. Murkowski mount a successful write-in campaign in 2010 as another moment that underscored their political might. Ms. Murkowski has worked closely with Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, to direct millions of dollars to the Indigenous communities in their states as the top lawmakers on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, Faye Ewan and Tesla Cox.Brian Adams for The New York TimesRyen Aavurauq Richards, who is Inupiaq, said she has seen that change in recent years, in part because Indigenous voters have come together more frequently advocating issues that impact their way of life, from commercial fishing to taking care of their lands. She once felt disconnected from the political process because to her the outcome of races in Alaska appeared predetermined.“The more that all of us tribes come together and discuss these big issues and work on them together — I feel like it has shifted my perspective and I can see a difference,” said Ms. Richards, 34, a peer support specialist based in Palmer.Beyond national representation, Indigenous organizations are urging participation in state elections as they fight to maintain gaming rights as a crucial part of their economy. Communities are also working to keep salmon from going extinct in the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest.Preservation of natural resources has been particularly acute in Alaska, where attendees at the convention cheered for Ms. Peltola’s emphasis on a “pro-fish” platform and others spoke about how they had become more involved in the push for better subsistence fishing in their regions.“We’re fighting for our salmon, we’re fighting for our food — that’s our way of life,” said Faye Ewan, 68, who lives in the Native Village of Kluti-Kaah and is a longtime champion for Indigenous sovereignty over fishing. “It’s sacred.”But like other elders, she said she had seen a change in the organizing and impact of Indigenous voters.“The younger generation is more educated and more aware of the policies,” Ms. Ewan said. More

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      Cherokees Ask U.S. to Make Good on a 187-Year-Old Promise, for a Start

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      The demand that Congress honor a treaty and seat a nonvoting delegate comes amid growing clashes over sovereignty and a tight race for Oklahoma’s governor, a Cherokee citizen.TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — In 1835, U.S. officials traveled to the Cherokee Nation’s capital in Georgia to sign a treaty forcing the Cherokees off their lands in the American South, opening them to white settlers. The Treaty of New Echota sent thousands on a death march to new lands in Oklahoma.The Cherokees were forced at gunpoint to honor the treaty. But though it stipulated that the Nation would be entitled to a nonvoting seat in the House of Representatives, Congress reneged on that part of the deal. Now, amid a growing movement across Indian Country for greater representation and sovereignty, the Cherokees are pushing to seat their delegate, 187 years later.“For nearly two centuries, Congress has failed to honor that promise,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a recent interview in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, in eastern Oklahoma. “It’s time to insist the United States keep its word.”The Cherokees and other tribal nations have made significant gains in recent decades, plowing income from sources like casino gambling into hospitals, meat-processing plants and lobbyists in Washington. At the same time, though, those tribes are seeing new threats to their efforts to govern themselves.A U.S. Supreme Court tilting hard to the right seems ready to undermine or reverse sovereignty rulings that were considered settled, while new state laws may affect how schools teach Native American history. And tribes are embroiled in a caustic feud with Oklahoma’s Republican governor — despite his distinction as the first Cherokee citizen to lead the state — that has helped to make his re-election bid next week a tossup.Amid such challenges, the Nation is trying to cobble together bipartisan support for its delegate, who, if seated, would resemble the nonvoting House members representing several territories and the District of Columbia. Such delegates cannot take part in final votes, but can introduce legislation and serve on committees.A new hospital for the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah. Many tribal nations are pouring income from sources like casino gambling into health care and other needs.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesKimberly Teehee, the Cherokee Nation’s nominated delegate for a nonvoting seat in Congress. She is a Democrat and former adviser to President Barack Obama.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesKimberly Teehee, nominated in 2019 for the delegate position, said the role would open a new space for Indigenous representation. “We have priorities that are similar to other tribes when it comes to deployment of dollars, accessing health care, public safety, preserving our culture,” Ms. Teehee said. “This treaty right allows us to have a seat at the table.”The Cherokee Nation has about 430,000 citizens, Ms. Teehee said, which is more than the combined population of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, all of which have their own delegates in Congress.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.Governor’s Races: Democrats and Republicans are heading into the final stretch of more than a dozen competitive contests for governor. Some battleground races could also determine who controls the Senate.Democrats’ Mounting Anxiety: Top Democratic officials are openly second-guessing their party’s pitch and tactics, saying Democrats have failed to unite around one central message.Social Security and Medicare: Republicans, eyeing a midterms victory, are floating changes to the safety net programs. Democrats have seized on the proposals to galvanize voters.Debunking Misinformation: Falsehoods and rumors are flourishing ahead of Election Day, especially in Pennsylvania. We debunked five of the most widespread voting-related claims.So far, the Nation has drawn backing from Native American leaders across the country, as well as measured support from members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, including Representative Tom Cole, a Republican and member of the Chickasaw Nation.The House Rules Committee, led by Mr. Cole and Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is expected to hold a hearing on the Cherokee delegate in mid-November. Even if control of Congress changes in next week’s midterm elections, that could open the way for a vote before the end of the year.Tribal nations across the United States are closely following the debate, eyeing the possibility that it could set a precedent. The Choctaw Nation may also have the right to a delegate under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830, signed before its removal from what is now Mississippi. Similarly, the Delaware Nation’s treaty with the United States in 1778 could allow its members a delegate.“I think you’ll see a significant outcry from the rest of Indian Country saying, ‘We want one, too,’” said M. Alexander Pearl, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma and a citizen of Chickasaw Nation. “And I think that they’re right.”Still, the Cherokees could face headwinds in the deeply divided House. Ms. Teehee is a Democrat and former adviser to President Barack Obama. A spokesman for Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the Cherokees’ effort.Mr. Cole, the Oklahoma Republican, has said that he doesn’t object to seating the delegate, but he also noted that “there’s a lot of challenges to it,” including the question of dual representation in the House.“There’s a lot of people that will say, ‘Well, that delegate’s chosen by a council, not by a general election,’” Mr. Cole said this year. “And Cherokees then get two votes: your vote for a council member and their vote for the congressman of their own district, so they sort of get to two bites of the apple.”Downtown Tahlequah on the Cherokee Reservation. The Cherokees were forced to march to Oklahoma after their land in the American South was signed over for use by white settlers.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesSeveral Cherokee leaders and representatives of the federal government celebrated the opening of a meat-processing plant in Tahlequah last month.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesA report by the Congressional Research Service raised other potential legal issues, including the possibility that the delegate provision would not apply now that Oklahoma is a state, not Indian Territory.The debate is lifting the veil on one of the most contentious periods between the United States and Indigenous peoples, when about a quarter of the 16,000 Cherokees who walked what’s known as the Trail of Tears died on their way to Oklahoma. “This is a chance to finally reckon with ethnic cleansing, and massive and catastrophic loss of life,” said Julie Reed, a historian and Cherokee Nation citizen who teaches at Penn State University.The push for a delegate after nearly two centuries also reflects the wider effort by Native Americans to exercise self-governance in ways that would have been unrecognizable to previous generations in Indian Country, a federal designation for land under tribal jurisdiction.Native candidates have recently won congressional seats in states ranging from Alaska to Kansas. Some tribes are buying back ancestral lands. And Indigenous nations are expanding their own criminal justice systems across the country.“The 1950s was the lowest point of Indian sovereignty,” said Robert J. Miller, a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and a law professor at Arizona State University, citing the failed attempt by the U.S. government to disband tribes and relocate their members to cities. “The comeback has been incredible.”Such breakthroughs, however, are taking place against the backdrop of other challenges, including those before the Supreme Court. In one ruling in June that upended longstanding precedents, the justices expanded the power of state governments over tribal nations.The 5-4 ruling, which allows states to charge non-Indians for crimes committed against Indians on tribal land, stunned experts on Native American law and weakened a major decision from just two years before that had established the authority of tribal or federal courts on Indian land. (Tribal courts would retain authority over Native Americans who commit crimes on the reservation.)Another case set to be heard by the court this year, challenging a 1978 law giving Native Americans preference in adopting Native children, could be just as unsettling. The law was intended to put an end to policies allowing Native children to be forcibly taken from their homes and placed by child welfare agencies in non-Native homes.Plaintiffs, including the State of Texas, argue that the law created a system illegally based on race. But many tribal nations, including the Cherokees, have lined up against the challenge.New measures at the state level are also flaring tempers, including an Oklahoma law banning schools from teaching material that could cause students discomfort or psychological stress because of their race.Fourth graders studying at the Cherokee Immersion School. A lawsuit by teachers and civil rights advocates says that an Oklahoma law could limit the teaching of Native American history.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesChuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, center, said it was “time to insist the United States keep its word” and seat a Cherokee delegate to Congress.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesGov. Kevin Stitt signed the law as part of a wave of legislation against “critical race theory,” a phrase used by conservative leaders to describe what they see as efforts to infiltrate classrooms with lessons about structural racism.A lawsuit by teachers and civil rights advocates warned that the law could silence classroom discussion about subjects like the Trail of Tears. And a high school English teacher in the town of Dewey, Okla., recently said she would stop teaching “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the best-selling book by David Grann about the murders of wealthy Osage people in the 1920s.Because the Osage were targeted for their race, the teacher told The Oklahoman that she was afraid of losing her license under the new law.Whitney Red Corn, a director of an early learning center and member of the Osage Nation Congress, said the law felt like “pushback” at a time when tribal nations were exercising rights. “It’s heartbreaking for me that something from our history could be avoided because it’s hard to hear,” said Ms. Red Corn, who took part in an Osage vote calling for the repeal of the law.One of the most bitter disputes of the moment involves Oklahoma’s largest tribes and Governor Stitt, a mortgage banker. After taking office, the governor proposed sharp increases in the fees that the tribes pay to operate more than 100 casinos around the state, prompting backlash.Mr. Hoskin, the Cherokee chief, said he expected a different approach from Mr. Stitt as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. (The New York Times and High Country News previously reported on claims that his citizenship may have been fraudulently obtained by an ancestor, which Mr. Stitt has called “unsubstantiated slander.”)Mr. Stitt has clashed repeatedly with Oklahoma’s tribes. In June, he celebrated the Supreme Court ruling diluting the authority of tribal nations. Donelle Harder, a spokeswoman for Mr. Stitt, declined to say directly whether he supported or objected to the efforts to seat a Cherokee delegate.Regarding Mr. Stitt’s relations with tribal nations, Ms. Harder said, “Governor Stitt has worked to create more fair opportunities for all sovereign nations and all people who call Oklahoma home.”Five of Oklahoma’s largest tribes have publicly endorsed Mr. Stitt’s rival, Joy Hofmeister, a former Republican who switched parties last year. Recent polls in the heavily Republican state have shown the race in a dead heat.Mr. Hoskin called the clash with Mr. Stitt a crucial factor in the Cherokee efforts to bolster sovereignty: “I think he’s the most anti-Indian tribe governor in the history of this state.”Emily Cochrane More

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      Governor’s Races Enter Final Sprint on a Scrambled, Surprising Map

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      Deep-red Oklahoma is in play for Democrats. New York and Oregon are within reach for Republicans. And several swing states have tight races with high stakes on abortion, elections and other issues.Democrats and Republicans raced on Saturday into the final stretch of more than a dozen competitive contests for governor, as the G.O.P. moves within striking distance of flipping the top office in a series of blue and battleground states and Democrats show surprising strength in several other contests.With pivotal races for the House and the Senate appearing to shift toward Republicans, the nation’s far more variable and highly consequential races for governor are drawing huge influxes of money. Democrats are also sending in their cavalry, dispatching former President Barack Obama to a rally in Georgia on Friday before appearances in Michigan and Wisconsin on Saturday and in Nevada on Tuesday.The stakes in these races have become broader and clearer in recent months. The Supreme Court has given states the power to write their own abortion laws, and Republican candidates in places including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about the validity of the 2020 election.Republican candidates for governor, who enjoy a favorable political environment but in many states are being outspent by Democrats, have slammed the airwaves with an avalanche of crime ads. Incumbent Democrats have hit back by pointing to money they have pumped into law enforcement agencies and hammering Republicans for opposing abortion rights.The current president and his predecessor, both unpopular with swing voters, are absent from the closest races. President Biden recently stumped for the party’s struggling nominee in liberal Oregon and is headed to New Mexico next week. Mr. Trump is holding rallies in places that are safe for his party, like Iowa and Texas, or where he is aiming to prop up Senate candidates, as in Pennsylvania and Ohio.While the governor’s race in deep-red Oklahoma has become newly competitive for Democrats, and the party has a comfortable lead in divided Pennsylvania, the sour national mood has put the leadership of blue states like New York, New Mexico and Oregon within reach for Republicans. A G.O.P. governor in any of those states could block efforts to expand abortion access and other Democratic priorities.Some Democratic candidates, trying to turn the narrative around, have gone so far as to claim they are fighting an uphill battle — even in New York, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by two to one.“I’ve always said I was an underdog,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in Queens on Friday, a day before her Republican opponent, Representative Lee Zeldin, was set to appear with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. “There’s circumstances sometimes you can’t control. You don’t know what’s happening nationally. There’s national waves. There’s a lot of forces out there.”Gov. Kathy Hochul with President Biden in Syracuse on Thursday. Democrats are throwing money into a last-ditch push to shore up her campaign against Representative Lee Zeldin. Kenny Holston for The New York TimesRepublicans have solidified their hold on the traditional presidential battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio, with incumbent governors building enormous fund-raising advantages and sizable polling leads, and Democrats have all but given up in those states. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has never been seriously threatened by former Representative Beto O’Rourke.In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has centered her campaign on her effort to maintain abortion rights, is confronting a narrowing race against her Republican challenger, Tudor Dixon, though she still holds polling and financial edges. Mr. Obama will hold a rally for Ms. Whitmer in Detroit on Saturday.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.Bracing for a Red Wave: Republicans were already favored to flip the House. Now they are looking to run up the score by vying for seats in deep-blue states.Pennsylvania Senate Race: The debate performance by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is still recovering from a stroke, has thrust questions of health to the center of the pivotal race and raised Democratic anxieties.G.O.P. Inflation Plans: Republicans are riding a wave of anger over inflation as they seek to recapture Congress, but few economists expect their proposals to bring down rising prices.Polling Analysis: If these poll results keep up, everything from a Democratic hold in the Senate and a narrow House majority to a total G.O.P. rout becomes imaginable, writes Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst.In an interview on Friday, Ms. Dixon, who opposes abortion rights, said she had “been on television and radio as much as possible” to make up for Ms. Whitmer’s cash advantage. Since the beginning of September, the governor and Democrats have spent four times as much on television ads as Ms. Dixon and Republican groups have.Asked if she would welcome a final-week visit by Mr. Trump, who last held a rally in the state on Oct. 1, Ms. Dixon mentioned a different surrogate — one who three years ago was running for president as a Democrat.“We’ve already had President Trump here,” she said. “We have other great people. Tulsi Gabbard is coming in this weekend.”Tudor Dixon with her family in Muskegon, Mich. Her campaign has far less money than Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but polls in their race have narrowed.Emily Elconin for The New York TimesMs. Whitmer said that “Potus was here a while ago, and having Barack Obama here now is great,” referring to Mr. Biden by his presidential acronym. She added, “The whole world understands Michigan is a really important state on the national map and the consequences of this race are big.”The lone incumbent Republican governor in a competitive race is Brian Kemp of Georgia, who is leading his rematch with Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who lost to him narrowly in 2018. Polls show Mr. Kemp with a solid advantage, though there is some doubt about whether he will eclipse the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in December..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.And in Arizona’s open-seat race for governor, the Republican nominee, Kari Lake, a television anchor-turned-Trump acolyte, is in a close race with Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state, who is widely seen as having mounted a lackluster campaign. A victory by Ms. Lake could have major implications for future elections in Arizona, given her relentless false claims that the 2020 contest was stolen.Yet the presence on the ballot of Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat who has led in polls of his race, may help Ms. Hobbs survive.Unlike other Democratic candidates for governor in battleground states, Josh Shapiro, right, of Pennsylvania has a healthy lead in the polls.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesIn some states, Democratic candidates are putting up a stiff challenge or are even ahead. In 12 of the 13 closest governor’s races, the Democratic candidates and their allied groups have spent more money on television advertising since Sept. 1 than their Republican opponents have, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm.In Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, has built a yawning gap between himself and his underfunded far-right rival, Doug Mastriano, who has promised to ban abortion without exceptions and enact major new voting restrictions. Democrats are also far ahead of Trump-endorsed Republicans in Maryland and Massachusetts, liberal states where moderate Republicans have had recent success in governor’s races.But Democrats who swept into governor’s mansions in the 2018 electoral rejection of Mr. Trump now find themselves battling decades of history. Michigan and Wisconsin — where Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, is neck-and-neck with Tim Michels, a Republican — have not elected a governor of the same party as the sitting president since 1990, while Kansas and New Mexico have not done so since 1986.Tim Michels, the Republican nominee in Wisconsin, is in a razor-thin race against Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesAt the same time, Republicans, who hold 28 governorships compared with Democrats’ 22, are attacking their Democratic rivals over crime in contests across the country.Few Republicans in close races have done so quite like Mark Ronchetti, a former TV weatherman running against Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic governor of New Mexico, which Mr. Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020.Since the beginning of September, 82 percent of the television ad spending from Mr. Ronchetti and the Republican Governors Association has been about crime, according to AdImpact data. Of all of the nation’s Republican candidates for governor, only Mr. Zeldin in New York has made crime more of a focus of his ads.Albuquerque, whose metropolitan area includes about half of New Mexico’s population, set a record for homicides in 2021. The killings are a staple of local television news coverage, so Mr. Ronchetti’s ads bashing Ms. Lujan Grisham on crime are often sandwiched between those news reports.“We’ve always had challenges of making sure we can have a safe city,” Mr. Ronchetti said in an interview. “For the most part, this was a safe place to raise your kids. But it’s gotten out of control.”Ms. Lujan Grisham’s closing advertising features sheriffs saying she has provided funding for more police officers. Democratic advertising has also highlighted Mr. Ronchetti’s opposition to abortion.Perhaps no Democratic nominee has put up as surprising a performance as Joy Hofmeister in Oklahoma.Joy Hofmeister, left, and Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma during their debate, when she pointed out that the state’s violent crime rate was higher than that of California and New York. Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman, via Associated PressMs. Hofmeister, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, had a viral debate moment this month when she correctly noted that Oklahoma’s violent crime rate under Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, was higher than the rates in California and New York.Mr. Stitt protested that it wasn’t true.“Oklahomans, do you believe we have higher crime than New York or California?” he said. “That’s what she just said.”In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Hofmeister credited her strength in Oklahoma, where Mr. Trump won 65 percent of the vote in 2020, to focusing on local issues even as Mr. Stitt tries to nationalize the race by tying her to Mr. Biden.“He is reading from a national script,” she said. “It has absolutely nothing to do with reality. It’s this formula that he thinks somehow is going to work.”Luis Ferré-Sadurní More

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      ‘Innocent is innocent, period’: Richard Glossip on facing execution again

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      ‘Innocent is innocent, period’: Richard Glossip on facing execution again Oklahoma man has had his execution temporarily called off several times since he was sentenced to death as the list of flaws in the prosecution case grows longer by the dayRichard Glossip is intimately acquainted with the cell in Oklahoma state penitentiary known as “LL”. He’s been inside its 8ft by 12ft grey walls three times, waiting to be taken to the room next door – the death chamber.Glossip was brought into the cell each time at 3am on the morning of his scheduled execution. In a letter and phone call with the Guardian from death row in McAlester, Oklahoma, last week, he described what it was like spending what he thought were his final few hours inside LL as the clock ticked down.“One side of the cell is covered in bright lights that never go off, like you are out in the sun,” he said. “You are watched by cameras as well as a guard who sits outside your door 24/7.”As Glossip’s date with death grew closer, guards started holding mock executions. They would lead an actor dressed in prison uniform into the death chamber, strap him on the gurney and then role-play the execution procedure from start to finish.The entire dress rehearsal was carried out in Glossip’s full view. “I could see everything. I could have stayed in the back of the cell and tried not to watch, but I didn’t because I knew I was next.”The most recent time Glossip was in cell LL was on 30 September 2015. “It was the hardest day of my life,” he said.He remembers shivering in his boxer shorts, pacing up and down to keep warm in the cell which was cold as a meat locker. He repeatedly asked the guards what was happening, and could he talk to his attorney.No idea, and no, they replied.“The execution team was supposed to come and get me within 15 minutes and take me in [to the death chamber]. But nobody came. I paced and paced, prayed harder than I ever have. ‘Please God, stop them from doing this to me’.”Two hours after his scheduled execution time, a man in a suit entered LL and told Glossip that he had been granted a stay. “It was like the heaviest weight had been lifted off of me,” he said. “My prayers were answered.” The euphoria the prisoner felt after each of his three executions were temporarily called off didn’t last long. Not when a state as relentless in its pursuit of capital punishment as Oklahoma was out to get him.He was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, owner of a Best Budget motel in Oklahoma City where Glossip worked as manager. No one has ever accused him of actually killing Van Treese.Rather, Justin Sneed, a maintenance worker at the motel with a methamphetamine habit, confessed that all on his own he beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. Sneed later turned state’s witness and testified that Glossip had ordered the murder.On the strength of Sneed’s testimony, with no other forensic or corroborating evidence, the state secured a death sentence for Glossip while the sole killer, Sneed, was given life without parole. Glossip, who went through two trials in 1998 and 2004 and was convicted twice, has always pleaded innocence.In August, Oklahoma’s governor Kevin Stitt granted Glossip another reprieve, ordering a 60-day stay to give the courts time to consider new evidence. The postponement came just a day before the prisoner was due to be put back into “death watch”, the month-long formal countdown which ends with him being put in cell LL.Now the whole grim process is starting up again. A new execution date has been set and unless something dramatic happens Glossip, 59, will before long find himself once again back inside LL at 3am, watching the clock tick down.It’s a prospect that leaves his lawyer, Don Knight, profoundly troubled. He is distressed that his client has been brought so close to execution multiple times, likening the trauma to the way Islamic State has taken hostages to be beheaded and then called off the killing only to repeat it the following day.“That’s where we are, we’ve fallen that low,” Knight said.The lawyer is also deeply concerned about Glossip because he is convinced that an innocent man is facing imminent execution. Knight has been involved in about 50 capital cases and for him, the Glossip case stands in a league of its own.“From the very first moment I saw this case, it never made any sense,” he said in an interview. “It was blatantly obvious to me, from the start, that this was a bad prosecution.”Last year the global law firm Reed Smith was invited by state legislators to take a close look at the Glossip conviction. They produced a 343-page report which revealed a spate of alarming deficiencies in the prosecution.The firm discovered that the police investigation into Van Treese’s murder had been glaringly mishandled. Sneed, the sole killer and the state’s star witness, had been contaminated – he only implicated Glossip as the mastermind behind the murder after detectives invoked the motel manager’s name six times during the interrogation.Reed Smith revealed that critical physical evidence and financial documents had been destroyed by prosecutors before Glossip’s trial – a gross violation of legal process – while other evidence that could have transformed the case was never presented to the jury. The firm concluded that “no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of first-degree murder”.Since the Reed Smith report was released in June, an avalanche of new information has been obtained casting further doubt on the conviction and death sentence.Investigators found a handwritten letter from Sneed to his defense lawyer dated 2007, three years after the killer’s testimony at trial sent Glossip to death row. “There are a lot of things right now that are eating at me. Somethings I need to clean up,” he wrote. “I think you know were (sic) I’m going it was a mistake reliving this.”Fresh doubt about the Sneed’s reliability as a witness has surfaced in the past two weeks. Reed Smith has put out new findings that show that he discussed “recanting” his testimony with several people over an 11-year period.The most powerful new evidence points to allegedly improper communications between the lead prosecutor at Glossip’s trial, Connie Smothermon, and Sneed’s lawyer Gina Walker (who died in 2020). Lawyers for Glossip argue this was a breach of sequestration – the rule that prevents witnesses hearing what other witnesses say to avoid tainting their testimony.Documents disclosed by the state attorney general last month contained email exchanges between Smothermon and Walker. In them, the prosecutor raised concerns about a specific aspect of Sneed’s testimony – a knife.Sneed had told police that he was the only person present when he battered Van Treese to death. He also insisted that he had not used a knife in the attack.Yet on 25 May 2004 the medical examiner at Glossip’s trial, Dr Chai Choi, told the jury that the victim had puncture wounds on the body and that these amounted to a “stabbing type injury”. A knife was found underneath Van Treese’s corpse.How could Van Treese have cuts on his body when Sneed was the only attacker but did not use the knife? According to Reed Smith investigators, Smothermon sent an email to Sneed’s lawyer on the same day as Choi’s testimony.“Our biggest problem is still the knife,” the prosecutor told Walker. “The victim and Justin both have ‘lacerations’ which could be caused from fighting / falling on furniture with edges or from a knife blade.”She ended the email on a note of urgency. Referring to Sneed, she said: “We should get to him this afternoon.”The next day, 26 May 2004, Sneed addressed the jury at Glossip’s retrial. He now told a very different story, saying that did indeed stab Van Treese in the chest.“It now appears that Sneed tailored his testimony on the use of the knife,” Reed Smith concluded.Unreliable star witness, incompetent police investigation, destroyed evidence, manufactured testimony – the list of flaws in the prosecution case grows longer by the day. “The whole thing from Walker and Smothermon, and Sneed’s changed testimony, it disgusts me,” Knight said.Justin Humphrey, a Republican legislator in Oklahoma, used even sharper words. At a press conference to reveal the new evidence last month, he introduced himself as a “strong proponent of the death penalty”.Then he addressed the prosecutors who had secured Glossip’s death sentence on seemingly shakey grounds: “You put a person on death row, you are looking at taking a person’s life. Which makes you no better than a murderer to me – why would you do that? Why would you manufacture evidence?”The Guardian invited Smothermon, now teaching at the University of Oklahoma, to comment but she did not immediately respond. In a statement, Oklahoma’s current attorney general John O’Connor said that he had seen “no evidence” of Glossip’s innocence.“It is disappointing that Glossip’s supporters are criticizing law enforcement, prosecutors, juries, and judges in an attempt to distract the public from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of Glossip’s guilt,” O’Connor said.Glossip now has two petitions before the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals calling for a new evidentiary hearing.Knight said that what has happened to Glossip should worry all of us. “This is what happens when the state is allowed to run amok. They can convict anybody of anything. And that’s what happened here. They poured their resources on top of an ordinary guy to show what they could do. And when that’s the case, none of us are safe.”Glossip has been given a new execution date: 8 December. “The clock is ticking again. I can feel it,” he said.On two separate occasions, he was offered a plea deal that would have taken him off death row and given life without parole instead. Both times he declined; he was not prepared to plead guilty to something he says he did not do.“Innocent is innocent, period,” he wrote to the Guardian.I asked him during the prison phone call whether he would regret making that decision were he to find himself, on 8 December, back in cell LL.“I mean yes,” he said. “I still believe that innocent is innocent. You fight again.”Whatever comes?“Whatever comes,” he said.TopicsCapital punishmentOklahomaUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Here’s who won and who lost in Florida, New York and Oklahoma.

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      Voters in Florida, New York and Oklahoma went to the polls on Tuesday. Here is a rundown of some of the most important wins and losses so far.New YorkRepresentative Jerrold Nadler defeated Representative Carolyn B. Maloney in the Democratic primary in the 12th Congressional District, in the heart of Manhattan, after a New York court combined their longtime seats in redistricting. Mr. Nadler and Ms. Maloney are both House committee chairs with storied careers.Pat Ryan, a Democrat, won an upset over Marc Molinaro, a Republican, in a special election in the 19th Congressional District, which both candidates framed as an opportunity for voters to send a national message after Supreme Court rulings on guns and abortion. Joe Sempolinski, a Republican, defeated Max Della Pia, a Democrat, in a special election in the 23rd District. He will fill a seat vacated by Tom Reed, a fellow Republican accused of sexual misconduct.In the regularly scheduled Republican primary in the 23rd District, Nick Langworthy, the state Republican Party chairman, won over Carl Paladino, a former candidate for governor with a history of racist, sexist and homophobic remarks. Mr. Sempolinski, who won the special election to serve until January, did not run in the primary for a full term.Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who helped impeach President Donald J. Trump, won a crowded Democratic primary over State Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou in the 10th Congressional District, a rare open seat in the heart of New York City. The field also included Mondaire Jones, a sitting congressman from another district; Carlina Rivera, a city councilwoman; and others.Robert Zimmerman, a member of the Democratic National Committee, won the Democratic nomination in the Third District, on Long Island. He is expected to face a stiff challenge in November from the Republican nominee, George Santos.Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, beat back a progressive challenger, State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, in the exurbs north of New York City. Mr. Maloney had drawn heavy criticism when he chose to run in this district, the 17th, after redistricting made his current one less reliably Democratic.FloridaRepresentative Charlie Crist easily won the Democratic primary for governor over Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner, and will now face Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. Representative Val B. Demings won the Democratic nomination to challenge Senator Marco Rubio, handily defeating three lesser-known candidates.Representative Matt Gaetz beat back a Republican primary challenge from Mark Lombardo, a Marine Corps veteran and former FedEx executive. Mr. Gaetz’s hard-right views are popular in this strongly Republican district in the Florida Panhandle, and he won despite being a subject of a child sex trafficking investigation.Cory Mills, an Army veteran who ran an ad likening mask mandates to Taliban control, won the Republican primary in a safely red district north of Orlando. He defeated State Representative Anthony Sabatini, who recently called for Florida to “sever all ties” with the Justice Department and suggested arresting F.B.I. agents, and several other candidates.Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a progressive activist who would be the first member of Generation Z to serve in Congress, won in a crowded Democratic primary for this solidly blue Orlando-area seat that Ms. Demings is leaving to run for Senate.Representative Daniel Webster won an unexpectedly narrow victory in the 11th District’s Republican primary over Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has called herself “a #ProudIslamophobe.” Ms. Loomer had not been expected to pose a serious challenge.Anna Paulina Luna, a Trump endorsee, is the Republican nominee in the 13th District, a seat in the Tampa Bay area made much redder after redistricting. She defeated Kevin Hayslett and Amanda Makki and is expected to win the general election to replace Mr. Crist.OklahomaRepresentative Markwayne Mullin defeated the former Oklahoma House speaker T.W. Shannon in a runoff for the Republican nomination to replace Senator James M. Inhofe, who is retiring. He is expected to win easily in November over Kendra Horn, the Democratic nominee. More

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      Markwayne Mullin, election-denying former cage fighter, closes on Oklahoma Senate seat

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      Markwayne Mullin, election-denying former cage fighter, closes on Oklahoma Senate seatCongressman who embraced Donald Trump’s big lie seeks to replace retiring Senator Jim Inhofe An election-denying former mixed martial arts fighter who was widely criticised for an attempted freelance mission last year to rescue Americans trapped in Afghanistan has won a shot at a US Senate seat from Oklahoma.Markwayne Mullin, a sitting congressman, beat another Donald Trump loyalist and election denier for their party’s nomination in a special election on Tuesday and will seek to replace the long-serving senator Jim Inhofe in November.‘I’m not Rambo’: Republican unrepentant about attempt to enter AfghanistanRead moreMullin, a plumbing company owner from Westville, and TW Shannon, a former speaker of the Oklahoma House and a bank executive from Oklahoma City, both embraced Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was subject to widespread fraud.The two were the top finishers in a 13-candidate Republican primary in June, but neither topped the 50% threshold needed to win the nomination outright.Mullin, who topped that field with nearly 44% of the vote, earned Trump’s endorsement shortly after the primary. He has something else in common with the former president: an exaggeration of his own sporting prowess.The politician who declared “I’m not Rambo” after his much-ridiculed attempt to enter Afghanistan in the company of a private US security team, boasts on his website a 5-0 record as a professional mixed martial arts fighter.The official record of his short-lived career suggests a different story: a total of three wins, two against the same opponent, and cumulative fight time of less than 10 minutes in under three rounds.In the political ring, Mullin will now seek to replace the retiring 87-year-old Inhofe, a fixture in Republican politics in Oklahoma since the 1960s who has held his Senate seat since 1994. Inhofe is leaving before his six-year term is finished, so his replacement will serve four years.In November, Mullin will be heavily favored to beat the former Democratic congresswoman Kendra Horn, along with an independent candidate and a Libertarian. Oklahoma has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate in more than 30 years.In a state where nearly 10% of the population identifies as American Indian, both Mullin and Shannon are members of Native American tribes. Mullin is a Cherokee citizen and Shannon, who is also African American, is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.Campaign finance reports showed Mullin raised about $3.6m, nearly three times the $1.3m Shannon reported.In campaign ads and on the stump, both touted their positions on hot-button issues and vowed to fight Joe Biden’s agenda.Shannon launched an anti-abortion ad in which he labeled Planned Parenthood the “true face of white supremacy”. Mullin, in an ad featuring two of his own children and a montage of the transgender collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas, said: “Democrats can’t even tell us what a woman is.”Also on Tuesday, in the Democratic primary runoff for Oklahoma’s other US Senate seat, the cybersecurity expert Madison Horn defeated Jason Bollinger, an Oklahoma City attorney.Horn, who is not related to Kendra Horn, will face the incumbent Republican senator, James Lankford, who will be the heavy favorite in November, along with a Republican and an independent.TopicsOklahomaRepublicansUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Oklahoma lawmakers urge pause amid fears innocent man to be executed

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      Oklahoma lawmakers urge pause amid fears innocent man to be executedBipartisan group calls for new hearing over lack of evidence in case of Richard Glossip, 59, as state rushes to speed up executions A letter signed by 61 Oklahoma lawmakers – most of them pro-death penalty Republicans – has been sent to the state’s attorney general calling for a new hearing in the case of Richard Glossip, a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month.Forty-four Republican and 17 Democratic legislators, amounting to more than a third of the state assembly, have written to John O’Connor pleading for the new hearing.Alabama executes Joe Nathan James Jr despite opposition from victim’s familyRead moreThe outpouring of concern is an indication of the intense unease surrounding the Glossip case, and the mounting fear that Oklahoma is preparing to kill an innocent man.Glossip, 59, is due to be killed on 22 September as part of a sudden speeding up of capital punishment activity in Oklahoma. He was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a Best Budget motel in Oklahoma City, where Glossip was manager.Justin Sneed, the motel’s maintenance worker, admitted that he had beaten Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. But Sneed later turned state’s witness on Glossip, accusing the manager of having ordered the murder.As a result, Sneed, the killer, avoided the death penalty and was given a life sentence. Glossip was put on death row almost entirely on the basis of Sneed’s testimony against him, with no other forensic or corroborating evidence.In their letter, the 61 legislators ask the attorney general to call for a hearing to consider new evidence that has been uncovered in the case. Last year a global law firm, Reed Smith, was asked by state lawmakers to carry out an independent investigation.Their 343-page report found that the state had intentionally destroyed key evidence before the trial. The review concluded that “no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of first-degree murder”.Glossip’s scheduled execution forms part of an extraordinary glut of death warrants that have been issued by Oklahoma in recent weeks. In July, the state received court permission to go ahead with 25 executions at a rate of almost one a month between now and December 2024.Should all those executions be carried out, Oklahoma’s current death row would shrink by almost 60% from its current occupancy of 43 prisoners.The first scheduled execution of the 25 is that of James Coddington, 50, on 25 August. Coddington’s fate is now in the hands of Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s Republican governor, after the state’s parole board recommended that he commute the prisoner’s sentence to life without parole.The clemency petition pointed out that Coddington had been impaired by alcohol and drug abuse starting when he was a baby. It said he had shown full remorse for having murdered Albert Hale, a friend who had refused to lend him $50 to buy cocaine.Glossip is the second of the 25 death row inmates to be booked for execution.The Republican-controlled state is rushing to kill so many prisoners over the next two years as it rebounds from a six-year capital punishment moratorium that was forced upon it following a spate of gruesomely botched executions. In April 2014 Clayton Lockett writhed and groaned on the gurney after lethal injection drugs were administered into his flesh rather than a vein – he took 43 minutes to die.In January, 2015 Charles Warner was heard to say: “My body is on fire” as he was being killed. It was later discovered that the state had used an unauthorized drug in the procedure.Glossip was set to be the next one to die in September 2015 but the execution was postponed after it emerged that the same mistaken drug was about to be used. Oklahoma halted executions for six years before the practice was cranked up again last October.Remarkably, the first execution carried out after the hiatus in October 2021 was also botched. Witnesses saw John Grant displaying full-body convulsions and vomiting for 15 minutes.TopicsOklahomaRepublicansCapital punishmentDemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More