In the article, "Native American Vote Could Tip South Dakota’s Senate Race," (Link to Article) it talks about how influential Native American voters will be in this election. It talks about how Native Americans have supported Democrat candidates in the past, and they might be Rick Weiland's only shot of winning the Senate race this year. Almost ten percent of South Dakota's population is Native American, so they could have quite a bit of sway in the election. The only problem for Rick Weiland is that the independent candidate, Larry Pressler, may be taking some of these votes for himself. Pressler has campaigned on every reservation and even made promises of building a museum in Wounded Knee to commemorate the abuses that Native Americans have suffered in the past.
How Native Americans decide to vote this year could contribute greatly to how the Senate race turns out this year. If all of their votes do go to Rick Weiland then there is a chance that he could beat Mike Rounds. If the vote is split, however, like this article suggests, and some goes to Larry Pressler, then Mike Rounds will most likely come out on top in the election. I think that it will be interesting to see how this turns out. The Native American vote usually goes to the Democrat party, so if it doesn't this year, it could signify a change in political orientation of the Native American population.
I don't think Weiland will win, although it is incredible he got this close. It is encouraging that Native Americans are voting. I'm also glad that they are Democratic or Independent, which isn't suprising considering what those parties support. As ten percent of our population, we should also consider Native Americans more often when making decisions for our state.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hanna and Alexa that this is a very different view on the election-- although I do not forget that the Native American culture is a very important piece that makes up South Dakota, I have never thought of what their political viewpoints would be! I am also very interested to see who comes out on top next week, and this article peaks my interest even more, knowing that the Native American population could sway the votes so much!
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone. I think we need to take Native Americans into consideration more when we're predicting outcomes of elections, as well as when we're making any decisions as a state; they make up 10% which is quite a bit. It will definitely be interesting to see how the elections turn out; however, I think that Rounds will ultimately win based on the majority of the state. But we won't really know the outcome until the ballots are counted.
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