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Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, tells C-SPAN that a Paul Ryan candidacy remains a possibility even if unlikely.
I am often asked: Who is winning the votes from Indian Country this presidential election season?
This is Trahant Reports.
On social media it’s an intense debate. Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters point to Iowa, Oklahoma, Michigan, Nevada, and, after this weekend, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska, as evidence that Natives are “feeling the Bern.” But Hillary Clinton backers can look at results from Nevada and Arizona and make a case for the former Secretary of State. (Yes, you can argue Nevada either way. There is just not enough evidence for a definitive answer.)
But one thing is certain: Indian Country is voting for Democrats. In Arizona’s Apache County, for example, which is mostly Navajo, Clinton had more votes than the entire GOP field; and Sanders nearly doubled the vote tally of first-place Donald Trump.
There are distinct policy differences between the two parties at the presidential level.
Sanders has incorporated Native American issues into his stump speech, including full-funding of the Indian Health Service. Unprecedented. Clinton has a track record in Indian Country that goes back a long ways, even before she was a political figure, and her administration would build on the successes of the Obama years.
And the Republican alternative? Chaos. Imagine a government as crazy as the primaries.
We don’t know much about any of the Republican plans for Indian Country. Except these shared themes: Government is bad, Keystone XL pipeline is good, and there would be a new military emphasis on defeating Daeish in Syria and Iraq.
But what if the Republican nominee is not Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or even John Kasich?
Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who is a member of the Chickasaw Tribe, raised the possibility of a Paul Ryan candidacy last week. He said it’s far more likely that one of the three remaining presidential candidates will be nominated, but if there is no consensus, then he said Ryan would be the logical choice because he has already received millions of votes from across the country.
So the only way he could win the nomination would be in Cleveland after the first ballot, delegates are free to wheel-and-deal.
Over his career, Ryan has proposed a radical rethinking of federal programs, including those that serve American Indians and Alaska Natives. In 2014 as House Budget Chairman, Ryan published a full review of federal programs that address poverty, including lumping the Indian Health Service in with other “federal initiatives.” As I wrote at the time, what Ryan calls a “federal initiative,” I call a treaty obligation. A Ryan presidency would likely mean substantially less federal spending.
But Cole says Indian Country will be OK. He told Indian Country Today Media Network: “This idea that a Ryan budget means cuts in Indian programs is simply not true. We have a lot of people on both sides of the aisle who recognize the Indian country has been historically underfunded.”
Ryan also has a track record for reaching across the aisle and making a deal. The 2013 budget agreement with Washington Sen. Patty Murray provided at least some relief to the harsh budget measures found in the sequester.
I am Mark Trahant reporting.
