Politics

With voter registration closed, the Navajo Nation’s 2026 primary election is set for Tuesday, July 21, and election officials are encouraging the Nation’s more than 145,000 registered voters to cast ballots early rather than wait for Election Day.

The fights Frank Dayish Jr. is campaigning on, unsettled water rights, a federal government slow to honor its treaty obligations, the churn of energy development pressing against the Nation’s borders and the defense of Diné culture and religion, are the same ones he wrestled with two decades ago as vice president of the Navajo Nation.

Navajo Nation presidential candidate Donovan Begay said at a veterans forum on June 19 that the Nation needs to do more to help former service members navigate civilian life, access benefits and find stable housing.

Thirteen candidates for Navajo Nation president laid out competing visions for the Nation’s future, from jobs and land reform to tribal government, during a presidential forum Tuesday evening at Greyhills Academy High.

Jordon Begay, a Navajo Nation presidential candidate from Tonalea, Arizona, used a candidate forum to argue that the Nation must take ownership of its health care system, push Congress to loosen federal control over trust land and govern as one unit rather than three branches in conflict.