Begaye-Nez supporters celebrate victory

WINDOW ROCK

Just before 8 p.m. Tuesday, a young boy of about seven or eight went up to Jonathan Nez, the newly elected vice president of the Navajo Nation.

“Did we win?” he asked excitedly and when he was told that they had, he began jumping up and down for joy.

The 60 or so supporters of Russell Begaye and Nez at the Begaye-Nez headquarters in Window Rock weren’t exactly jumping up and down for joy but they were excited as they prepared to march over to the Window Rock Sports Center and celebrate one of the biggest upsets in tribal politics in decades.

At that point 100 of the 110 chapters had reported in and the Begaye-Nez ticket had a commanding – and unbeatable – lead of 23,815 to 14,149.

Earlier that afternoon, Edison Wauneka, director of the Navajo Election Administration, had reported that his office had received about 3,000 early votes, which was very low for a tribal presidential election but very good for a special election.

While the turnout was low, the victory for the Befaye-Nez campaign, however, was a solid one as they were the top vote-getters in chapter located throughout the reservation.

In previous elections where a tribal member from Arizona faced off against some from New Mexico, the voting patterns showed a clear pattern of the two candidates dominating their own states. Not this time as Begaye-Nez showed so much support that the two led the vote count from the very beginning and kept getting stronger as the votes came in.

Nez said he spent the day in New Mexico visiting as many chapters as he could as he headed toward Window Rock while Begaye did the same thing in Arizona.

“It was a good day,” he said, crediting the victory on the support the campaign received from grassroots Navajos who were upset at old-time Navajo politicians.

Outspent 10 to 1, the Begaye-Nez ticket relied heavily on donations of from $1 to $5 but made sure that whatever was spent was spent wisely to get out the campaign’s message of “hope and reconciliation.”

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