Politics

Armenia’s parliamentary elections Sunday will be a vote on its geopolitical future as incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan seeks closer relations with the European Union and the United States despite longstanding ties with Russia that have been championed by his critics.

Many analysts favor Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party to retain control of the parliament, but with many opposition parties running on pro-Russia platforms, the Caucasus nation’s place on the international stage has been thrown into the spotlight.

In the months ahead of the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have warned Armenia that joining the EU could come at the expense of massive economic damage by disrupting Armenian trade ties with Moscow and its allies.

“These are the first elections in Armenia’s history where geopolitical orientation has become a decisive issue,” Mikayel Zolyan, an analyst and former member of the Armenian Parliament, told The Associated Press from Yerevan. “Until now, Armenia has remained within Russia’s sphere of influence, and this was taken for granted, but now, for the first time, this is being called into question.”

Relations between Moscow and Armenia soured in 2023 after Azerbaijan took control of the entire Karabakh region. The mountainous region had been controlled for decades by ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia, part of a long conflict between the neighboring countries.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the conflict in Ukraine, has rejected the accusations, arguing its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

“It turned out that Russia’s image as a guarantor of Armenian security was not based in reality, and it all collapsed after the Karabakh war,” said Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan.

Pashinyan has begun cautiously weakening ties with Moscow, joining the International Criminal Court in 2023 and suspending its participation in the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024.

Armenia also officially declared its aspirations to join the EU and hosted the European Political Community summit in Yerevan in early May.

A convincing win in the parliamentary vote would give Pashinyan a mandate to continue the trend and finalize a deal with Azerbaijan.

Western nations have sought to show some of the advantages that closer ties could bring.

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to sign an agreement declaring an end to their decades-long hostilities and including provisions for the creation of a new transit corridor between Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan. An agreement in February could pave the way for a U.S. company to build a new nuclear reactor in Armenia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also has said that Europe is ready to invest in Armenia’s energy industry and its “booming digital scene.”

Trump has endorsed Pashinyan and called him a “great friend” and a leader who is making his country “strong, wealthy, and very secure!”

Much of Armenia’s opposition is still dominated by pro-Russia groups and many are also against normalizing relations with Azerbaijan. Key opposition figures have called for Pashinyan to stand down over the loss of Karabakh.

Nineteen political forces, including two blocs and 17 parties, are taking part in the elections.

Pashinyan’s main rival is the Strong Armenia Party, which wants closer business ties with Russia and accuses Pashinyan of attempting to spark a war with Moscow. The party is led by Armenian-Russian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who is on trial for calling for the overthrow of Armenia’s government. He denies the charges.

Other potential contenders include former President Robert Kocharyan, who leads the Hayastan bloc and has accused Pashinyan of “seriously undermining” relations with Russia.

Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, has warned that Yerevan’s Western turn could have dire political and economic consequences.

Putin has compared Armenia’s course to that of Ukraine in thinly veiled threats and has suggested Russia’s conflict with Ukraine started with its attempts to join the EU.

In recent weeks, Russian has introduced new restrictions on Armenian produce after citing sanitation violations, banning Armenian flowers, certain types of cognac and wine, eggplants, potatoes, dried fruits, fish and more.

Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led customs union, was placed under formal review during a members’ meeting in Kazakhstan in May, with threats to suspend it completely it by December.

During the Kazakhstan summit, the governments of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan also demanded Armenia hold a referendum on whether it would remain in their group or seek EU membership. Pashinyan has rejected the need for such a vote.

Armenian government statistics show 38% of Armenia’s exports went to countries within the Eurasian Economic Union in 2025, the vast majority heading to Russia. In comparison, just 8% of trade went to the EU.

The Russian measures prompted von der Leyen to announce Thursday that the 27-nation bloc would send 50 million euros ($58 million) to support Armenia. In a statement, she said Russia is “weaponizing” economic relations and its ban on imports was “nothing short of economic coercion.”

Russia could exert further pressure on Armenia because it controls a significant portion of the country’s energy and infrastructure and supplies cheap gas.

“It’s completely unrealistic to say that Armenia can somehow overcome Russian influence in a short period of time,” analyst Zolyan said.

Armenia’s civil society also isconcerned by what they have described as Russian-backed disinformation campaigns ahead of the vote. Moscow denies any interference.

Daniel Ionnisyan, head of the Union of Informed Citizens, an independent election watchdog, told the AP that his organization has documented instances of Russian interference through social media campaigns, cyberattacks, vote buying and bribery of journalists.

That echoes findings of a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which visited Yerevan in May and said foreign interference included illicit political financing, cyberattacks, economic coercion and direct attempts to manipulate the electoral process.

“These hybrid tactics aim not only to sway public opinion but to secure long-term geopolitical leverage over Armenia,” the delegation said.

___

Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

source

California Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui advanced to the November ballot on Friday after facing a reelection challenge from a younger Democrat.

Matsui, 81, has been in Congress since she replaced her late husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in the Sacramento-based seat in 2005.

In a statement referencing the upcoming runoff, Matsui vowed to “earn the trust of voters for another term in Congress.”

She faced a primary challenge from fellow Democrat Mai Vang, a member of the Sacramento City Council, and is one of several older Democrats challenged by younger insurgents this year. The second slot on the general election ballot has not yet been determined, but Vang issued a statement saying she was optimistic with the direction in which the count was moving.

“This is what people power looks like,” Vang said.

Two other House Democrats facing younger challengers, Reps. Brad Sherman in Los Angeles and Mike Thompson in Northern California, advanced to the general election as well.

But California’s House primaries were most significant for being the first test of whether Democrats are able to add five potential pickups after they persuaded voters to let them redraw the electoral map last year.

The redistricting was sold as a countermeasure to Republican efforts to gain seats by reworking maps in states they control, including Texas.

Heading into Tuesday’s election, Democrats worried that California’s primary format, which sends the top two vote-getters to the general election regardless of party, could lead to them getting locked out of a seat they drew to their advantage in the San Diego’s suburbs.

That did not happen, as San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert advanced to face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.

Democrats are at risk of being shut out of another district they expected to pick up, in Sacramento’s suburbs — though the danger of that dimmed Friday as Democratic former state Sen. Richard Pan moved into the top two for the first time. Tens of thousands of more ballots remain to be tallied, and it is too soon to know who will make it to November.

Another redrawn district, which straddles Orange and Riverside counties in Southern California, favors Republicans. GOP Rep. Ken Calvert has advanced to the November election in the 40th District but does not yet know who his opponent will be. He had a bruising primary fight with fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim, whom Democrats drew into a new district that includes areas Calvert previously represented.

In San Francisco a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Instead state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.

And in the Central Valley, Republican Rep. David Valadao, widely considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans, is waiting to see if he will face centrist Democrat and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains or progressive political science professor and school board member Randy Villegas in November.

Several races cannot be called yet because of California’s typical drawn-out election count, in which mail ballots that tend to come from more Democratic areas are counted later, eroding conservatives’ traditional leads in votes reported on election night.

Trump has previously seized on the count to baselessly alleged fraud and did so again Thursday, adding that his Justice Department would investigate the state over it. A federal prosecutor toured Los Angeles’ main vote-counting facility on Friday.

source

By David Thomas

June 5 (Reuters) – A judge on Friday blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding tens of billions of dollars in federal funds from states unless they complied with the Trump administration’s policies on immigration enforcement, transgender people and other issues.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun granted the preliminary injunction sought by Democratic attorneys general from 20 states ‌and the District of Columbia. Joun, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden to the federal court in Boston, said he would issue a memorandum explaining his decision at a later date.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell celebrated the ruling in a post on her Bluesky social media account, writing, “These grants are a lifeline — I’ll always fight to protect food assistance for families.”

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and USDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Friday’s ruling is one of several court decisions that have blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to place new conditions on grants that would ​align funding with the Republican president’s priorities.

The Democratic-led states and the capital district alleged that Trump’s new requirements would jeopardize funding already approved by Congress to feed low-income families and support farmers. The states receive more than $74 billion annually from USDA.

USDA at the end of last year said states must certify compliance with federal “policies” to receive funding. The attorneys general alleged that USDA’s requirement was too vague and would require them to comply with unrelated matters outlined in Trump executive orders concerning “gender ideology,” immigration, transgender athletes and diversity, equity and inclusion.

USDA’s conditions could affect nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the anti-poverty food stamp program, as well as the ​school lunch program and ​the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program ⁠for Women, Infants, and Children, the plaintiffs said. They alleged the USDA lacked authority to impose the new conditions, which they say violate the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause and went into effect without going through required legal procedures.

The Trump administration contends that if states are required to abide by federal antidiscrimination laws and regulations in order to receive funds, it should also apply to other “policies.”  

The case is Commonwealth of ⁠Massachusetts, et ​al., vs. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court for the ​District of Massachusetts, No. 1:26-cv-11396.

For the states: Nita Klunder of the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, Vikas Didwania of the Office ​of the Illinois Attorney General and Brian Bilford of the California Department of Justice

For the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts

(Reporting by David Thomas; Editing by Sergio Non and William Mallard)

source

June 5(Reuters) – Democratic former cabinet secretary Xavier Becerra is projected to advance to the November ballot for California governor after Tuesday’s primary election, U.S. media said on Friday.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto)

source

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s only Republican congressional seat is open for the first time in 15 years, and the primary is testing Republican voters’ appetite for a veteran politician or a newcomer with President Donald Trump’s backing.

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei announced his retirement earlier this year, creating an opening in the state’s 2nd District, which covers all of northern Nevada. He and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo are backing former state Sen. James Settelmeyer against retired Lt. Col. David Flippo, who has never held elected office but won the endorsement of Trump and key allies in his MAGA movement. The primary is Tuesday.

Republicans boast a large registration advantage in the district, and experts and strategists are watching the race for clues about how much influence Trump continues to hold over the party’s voters as he enters the last half of his final term. Nevada Democrats, meanwhile, say they’ll try to flip the seat despite the uphill climb and think Flippo could be an easier opponent because his ties to Trump could turn off nonpartisan voters in the swing county of Washoe, home to Reno.

Settelmeyer became a frontrunner when he entered the race with nearly two decades of political experience in the Legislature and state government. But Flippo quickly gained attention when he switched from a congressional race in southern Nevada. He began renting a house to run for the seat and brought with him endorsements from well-known conservative groups like Turning Point Action, founded by the late political activist Charlie Kirk.

Trump endorsed Flippo last week after both candidates had been fighting to show their ties to the president. Settelmeyer had been a co-chair of Trump’s 2024 Nevada campaign.

“I love the State — The People are special! I will never let you down and, with David Flippo, I am just adding to that Statement,” Trump posted on his social media.

The candidates have focused on the economy, water and land use — a major issue in Nevada where the majority of land is owned by the federal government — and they agree on many policies. That means their personalities and resumes have also been at the center of the campaign.

Flippo, a financial adviser, entered the race after well-known Nevada conservative figures declined to run, saying the race needed a “strong conservative.”

He’s focused his attacks on Settelmeyer’s voting record, including Settelmeyer’s support for allowing immigrants living in the country illegally to drive.

“I’m strong on my values, I’m stronger on the conservative principles, and I don’t have the voting record,” Flippo said in a recent interview.

But Settelmeyer says his legislative record proves he understands the state and how to govern. He served in both the Senate and Assembly and as director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He’s pledged to regularly commute back to Nevada from Washington, as Amodei did.

“It’s just very important that at the end of the day, that northern Nevada chooses a northern Nevadan to go to DC to represent northern Nevada,” Settelmeyer recently told a small crowd in Washoe Valley.

He’s emphasized that message by pointing to Flippo’s recent move to the district as well as his lack of political experience. Flippo ran in the Republican primary for Nevada’s 4th District in 2024 and lost.

“Twenty years ago, we would have said this race is probably a shoe-in for the more experienced candidate,” said Jeremy Gelman, a political science professor at the University of Nevada in Reno. “The way Republican primary politics have evolved, that’s not the case anymore.”

Part of Amodei’s success was his ability to both support Trump’s agenda while occasionally speaking against him, said Fred Lokken, political science professor at the Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.

He was the first House Republican to support an impeachment inquiry into Trump in 2019, though he ultimately voted against impeachment. He spoke critically of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year and opposed efforts to defund public broadcasting in 2025.

In Senate primaries in Louisiana and Texas, Trump’s support played a big role in the outcome, Gelman said. Trump is determining who will help get his top issues over the finish line in the last two years of his term, and likely viewed Flippo as a better ally because his campaign is focused on more national issues.

Flippo has the backing of national Republicans closely affiliated with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, such as former Rep. Matt Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus Fund, the political action committee for the hard-right conservative bloc of House Republicans. Trump, in his endorsement, noted Flippo has the backing of “the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Nevada.”

Settelmeyer’s campaign, meanwhile, said northern Nevada voters “deserve a representative who knows our issues, understands our communities, and has the experience to represent them in Washington, not someone who only moved here when a political opportunity opened up.”

source

By Nandita Bose and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will travel on Friday to central Wisconsin where his Republican Party hopes to hold on to a congressional seat in this year’s midterm elections.

The stop in Chippewa Falls highlights the Wisconsin seat’s crucial role in Republicans’ strategy to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as the party faces political headwinds with voters frustrated by higher costs of living amid the United States’ conflict with Iran. 

The president on Wednesday said that progress in negotiations with Iran could come within the next few days, but hope for a resolution has come and gone several times since the conflict began more than three months ago. 

The district’s incumbent, Representative Derrick Van Orden, is closely aligned with the president and touts the Trump administration’s focus on rural America as a benefit.

But Van Orden won reelection in 2024 by less than three points, making him a top target for national Democrats who hope to flip the slim 217-212 Republican House majority.  

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to cut inflation, but prices have risen following Trump’s sweeping tariffs enacted last year and the Iran war’s effect on energy prices. 

U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to a record low in May, as disrupted shipping in the Middle East caused a surge in gas prices. Wisconsin’s average gas price of $4.04 per gallon this week is $1.08 higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. 

The political implications of energy costs do not create more pressure to reach a peace deal with Iran, Trump said recently.

“They thought they were going to outwait me,” Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting last week, referring to Iran’s leadership. “You know, ‘We’ll outwait ​him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”

Trump’s Wisconsin trip is at least the fourth visit to this district by top administration officials in the last year, following visits by Vice President JD Vance in August and February, and a stop by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week. 

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman)

source

By Nolan D. McCaskill and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – Seven Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday joined Democrats to block debate on reauthorization of an expiring foreign surveillance law.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will expire on June 12 without congressional action. But a vote to begin debate failed early Friday, 47-52. Only one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted in favor of it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune lamented that nearly every Democrat opposed the procedural vote. But the vote nonetheless represented a significant setback for Republicans, who narrowly control both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Democrats have taken issue with President Donald Trump’s appointment of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, despite his lack of national security experience.

Thune said the Trump administration will have to consider whether Pulte’s role is an impediment to extending the warrantless domestic surveillance powers measure, which Congress voted to extend for 45 days on April 30. 

“Next week, it gets real,” Thune told reporters. “A few days from now … the program goes dark. I just think that would be a dangerous mistake for the country. Hopefully, responsible folks will come to the table and at least help us figure this out.”

While the timing of Pulte’s appointment “arguably wasn’t the best,” Thune said, “I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important.” 

The setback marked one more development that saw some Senate Republicans balking at a range of Trump initiatives, including his push for $1 billion in funding to help him build a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom and establish a $1.776 billion fund that he could use to funnel money to his political allies who claim they have been mistreated by the government.

Polls show a lack of public support at a time when voters want Washington to do something to ease a rising rate of inflation that is partially the result of the United States’ war with Iran that has hampered the international movement of oil.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Chizu Nomiyama )

source

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Friday he wants acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte to begin the process of firing a large number of employees as part of a shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community. 

Trump told the Journal he privately told Pulte that he believes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies and units, is “unnecessary and or too big.”

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump was quoted as saying.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Trump tapped Pulte to take over as interim director of national intelligence when Tulsi Gabbard leaves the post on June 30.

On Thursday, Trump indicated he will not nominate mortgage regulator Pulte to be the nation’s intelligence chief once his temporary appointment expires early next year.

Pulte has faced a backlash from Democrats and some key senators of his Republican Party over the Trump loyalist’s lack of national security experience.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; additional Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; editing by Susan Heavey)

source

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats competing over a coveted congressional district in Manhattan slugged it out during a heated debate Thursday night, sparring over big tech and who would be President Donald Trump’s toughest foe.

But it was Alex Bores — a state lawmaker whose plans to regulate artificial intelligence has led to a flurry of industry spending both against and in support of him — who was the prime target.

Within moments, state Assembly Member Micah Lasher suggested Bores would be beholden to the big tech players who support his campaign.

“Alex only wants to tell you half the story, about one AI company that’s spending millions to defeat him, and that’s bad,” Lasher said. “But he’s not telling you the story about Anthropic, which is spending a million dollars to elect him, or a crypto billionaire who is spending $3.5 million to send him to Congress,” Lasher continued.

Soon after, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, made a similar claim, arguing that Bores’ proposed artificial intelligence regulation “is a dream come true” for tech companies because it would give them too much control.

Bores responded: “With friends like these, who needs Republicans?”

“The Trump disinformation is coming from inside the party,” said Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who says he quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement.

The debate, hosted by local cable channel PIX11, came with just weeks to go before the June 23 primary for the District 12 congressional seat soon to vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler. The district includes the upscale neighborhoods bordering Central Park and Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered safely Democratic, with the Democratic primary regarded as the race’s deciding contest.

Nadler’s retirement announcement resulted in a wave of Democrats launching campaigns, though the ranks of challengers have somewhat thinned.

Nadler has endorsed Lasher, a former staffer who has held several behind-the-scenes posts in New York government before becoming a lawmaker in the state Assembly.

Schlossberg, whose zany social media antics and Kennedy lineage brought national eyes to the race, has cast himself as an fresh face to a party searching for stars during Trump’s second term.

George Conway, who was once married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway before becoming a leading antagonist of the president, is running a campaign centered on removing Trump from office.

Bores entered the race without the fanfare of a Kennedy or a Conway but has since become a major player after an artificial intelligence-aligned group started spending to hobble his campaign. The spending has seemed to elevate his campaign, rather than damage him, helping Bores frame himself as the candidate who wants to regulate a technology that has unnerved many Americans worried about impacts such as job losses.

Throughout the debate, Bores, who sponsored state legislation to require major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state, fended off attacks.

After one tense exchange, he moved to respond but was cut short so the broadcast could take a commercial break. Three of the five commercials were about Bores, a signal of the glut of spending in the race.

The first ad, paid for by the AI-backed Think Big PAC, claimed Bores was “bought and sold” by corporate interests. The following two ads were supportive of Bores, with one featuring a robotic voice that identified itself as “the AI super PAC funded by Trump’s megadonors designed to destroy Alex Bores,” and the other casting Bores as a champion of the working class.

“You’ve seen tonight that I’m nothing like the incessant text and mailers and TV ads that are being sent out to demonize me. But I am terrifying to Trump’s megadonors and apparently to my opponents as well,” Bores said when the debate resumed.

Conway, meanwhile, lamented the combative nature of the night.

“What we saw here tonight was something that Democrats sometimes do a little too well, which was a circular, or really a triangular firing squad, and I think that’s a shame,” he said.

source

SAN FELIPE PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — As the sun peeked over the Sandia Mountains, Deb Haaland was at a familiar spot, the tribal community where she used to work, waving at motorists and encouraging them to stop and vote in New Mexico’s primary.

It was the final day of voting earlier this week, and Haaland was embracing friends and former colleagues at San Felipe Pueblo where she was once a tribal administrator. She talked food, family and handcrafted silver jewelry with Pueblo women who have watched her political ascent with pride and are hoping to see her become the first Native woman to become a governor in the U.S.

Before the day was over, Haaland, who is a citizen of Laguna Pueblo, secured the Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor. Through her time in Congress and as U.S. Interior secretary, she has broken historical barriers. She’s now on the cusp of achieving another milestone, if she can defeat Republican Gregg Hull in November.

The odds are in Haaland’s favor, given the state’s leftward tilt over the last decade. But Hull, a former three-time mayor, says New Mexico needs a regime shift after years of Democratic rule to tackle longstanding problems such as dismal educational outcomes, high crime and poverty.

The next governor will inherit longstanding challenges and navigate policies rolled out by the Trump administration. Haaland mentioned President Donald Trump immediately in her primary victory speech Tuesday night and has blamed him for making life more expensive for New Mexicans by cutting key federal safety net programs.

In a memoir set for release this month, she said Trump’s reelection motivated her to run for governor, a position she sees as the “first line of defense against the worst policies coming out of this administration.”

Hull made no mention of Trump in his speech. He took aim at Haaland’s past opposition to the oil and gas industry, which bankrolls everything from education to free childcare in New Mexico, the No. 2 producer of oil in the U.S. behind Texas.

Haaland has said the revenue would factor into her affordability agenda and credited the industry for providing good-paying jobs. A supporter of the Green New Deal that called for shifting the economy away from fossil fuels, Haaland was often grilled during congressional hearings about her views on drilling.

“It’s a choice between an energy policy that’s built on common sense and not one that’s built on ideologies,” Hull said Tuesday night. “New Mexico is an energy state.”

Haaland said the country is long overdue for a female Native governor. Oklahoma is the only state that has elected a tribal citizen as governor and did so twice, in the early 1950s with Democrat Johnston Murray and now with Republican Kevin Stitt.

“I feel so strongly that representation matters,” Haaland said. “I mean, that’s what got me into politics in the first place, is because I wanted more Native people to vote.”

Hull said he respects that Haaland served as one of the first two Native American women in Congress and was the first Native American to be a U.S. Cabinet secretary. But he said Democratic policies have failed New Mexico.

Before a cheering crowd at Hull’s election night party, David Bearshield, who is Cheyanne and Arapaho, wrapped Hull and his wife each with a Pendleton blanket in a symbol of support and a reminder that Native people are not politically monolithic.

Some Native voters and tribal governments prefer more conservative candidates, especially when it comes to energy development, Bearshield said. He pointed to an ongoing fight beyond the borders of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, where some Navajos oppose a moratorium on oil and gas drilling that Haaland imposed as Interior secretary.

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” Bearshield said. “Those people don’t have to be in poverty.”

Advocacy groups see Haaland’s candidacy as a fresh opportunity to raise the profile of tribes and ensure they’re part of the decision-making process. But Haaland is familiar with both the increased visibility and scrutiny that come with representing often overlooked communities, said Jordan James Harvill with the advocacy group Advance Native Political Leadership.

“The weight on her is the weight to solve 500 years of colonization,” he said. “It’s just because there’s been so few of us.”

Harvill’s group has been working to change that, building up a presence on county commissions and in statehouses with the recruitment of more than 1,000 Native Americans interested in serving their communities. The group also was part of a coalition that pressed the Biden administration to tap Haaland as Interior secretary.

On primary night, mariachi melodies and hoop dancers set the tone at Albuquerque’s historic Old Town plaza where campaign staff and supporters celebrated a decisive primary victory by “Auntie Deb,” as she’s affectionately known in some corners of Indian Country.

When Haaland took the stage in beaded earrings and red cowboy boots to accept the nomination, Ann Chavez Barudin of Santo Domingo Pueblo watched from the crowd. She saw herself, her mother and her daughters reflected in the candidate.

“It’s emotional. It’s powerful,” Chavez Barudin said. “I didn’t think I would ever see this day happen.”

source