This election cycle, the political landscape in the United States has witnessed significant transformations, particularly among Hispanic and Native American communities. Traditionally associated with the Democratic Party, these groups have shown signs of shifting their allegiances toward the Republican Party.
Tuesday, November 5th, will go down in history as one of the world’s greatest political comebacks. After years of politicized investigations and the entire bureaucratic state coming after him, Donald Trump secured an electoral landslide and won back the White House.
By focusing on the kitchen table issues that matter to all Americans, regardless of their identity – inflation, illegal immigration, foreign affairs, public safety – Donald Trump was able to expand not only his electoral map but also his electorate.
Despite both Republicans and Democrats courting the Hispanic and Native American votes, exit polls from Tuesday night found that President Donald Trump received support from almost 65% of Native American voters and 45% of Hispanic voters.
However, these trends are not just unique to the American Southwest. In North Carolina, the once loyally blue Lumbee shifted 36 points to the right in 2020, giving Donald Trump critical votes necessary to win the state. In 2024, Donald Trump expanded his victory amongst tribal members, receiving 63% of the vote in Lumbee-heavy Robeson County.
When studying this trend and understanding the impact it will have on election outcomes in the future, it is important to look at why Native American and Latino voters shifted. On the issues, like many Americans, the traditional cultural values of both Hispanics and Native Americans simply do not align with the woke left.
At the core of both Hispanic and Native American cultures lies a deep respect for the family unit, traditional gender roles, respect for elders, tradition, God and the sacredness of life. These long-standing cultural values align better with the Republican Party.
Another key issue, particularly for tribes and Hispanic voters in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, is illegal immigration. While Democrats wrongly assumed Hispanic voters would align with their open-border immigration policies, Hispanics, just like all Americans, want safer communities, too. Native Americans witnessed the Biden-Harris administration roll out the red carpet and (x amount of funding) to non-citizens, while many of our own Native American populations don’t have access to running water or electricity.
President Trump’s straightforward immigration policy resonates with all Americans.
The concept of the American Dream is also a powerful motivator for many Hispanic and Native American voters. Native Americans on the reservation have experienced some of the highest rates of poverty, destruction and despair as a result of socialist policies – as well as many Hispanics who’ve left communist countries like Cuba and Venezuela. We have a natural distrust of big government socialist policies advanced by far-left Democrats – as many Americans should.
No amount of gaslighting from the Harris-Walz campaign could erase the tangible economic results delivered under Trump’s presidency. Native Americans and Hispanics, like all Americans, have hope and aspirations for a better future, rooted in the belief that anyone, regardless of their background, can succeed through hard work and determination. Trump’s policies emphasized this narrative and delivered opportunity and progress.
As a Native American and Hispanic woman from the heart of Indian country, Gallup, New Mexico – which is also in a Hispanic majority state, I have worked to bridge the gap between the Republican Party and Native and Hispanic communities. For the first time in recent memory, Donald Trump’s Republican Party made it their mission to earn the trust and support of these communities, and it paid off.
Though it was not enough to win in a state like New Mexico, Donald Trump’s outreach to our community put him within six points of winning, a five point improvement from 2020.
In the last week of his campaign, President Trump came to our state and spoke directly to our communities. New Mexico was never in play this cycle, but he seized the opportunity to make inroads and pushed the needle closer, improving his performances and appealing to a new group of mobilized voters.
Groundwork has been laid, a presence has been felt and a movement has begun. Flipping a reliably blue state takes time and with the Republican National Committee and Trump apparatus committed to improving Hispanic and Native American outreach in rural communities that were once reliably blue, we can begin to build a stronger bridge into these communities.
The potential for Hispanic and Native American communities to lean towards the Republican Party becomes increasingly plausible. Their traditional values, concerns over illegal immigration, economic aspirations, and the enduring hope of the American Dream create a complex interplay that influences their political choices.
These shifts have the potential to impact American electoral politics permanently and put states like New Mexico, Nevada and California in play for Republicans in the years to come.
Elisa Martinez is both Hispanic and Native American. She is a registered tribal member of the Navajo Nation. She ran for US Senate in New Mexico in 2020. She is a former Trump surrogate (2020), Native Americans for Trump coalition advisory board member and former press secretary for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.