Tribal Democracy Project Educates and Empowers Native Voters

In 2018, Jaylyn Suppah ran for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Council as part of the Unite Warm Springs campaign. In 2021, she ran for a Jefferson County School District 509J board seat with Brian Smith serving as her campaign manager. And in 2023, Jaylyn and Brian founded Tribal Democracy Project, which is dedicated to addressing Native voter disenfranchisement and defending Tribal Sovereignty through community empowerment.

Through her two campaigns, as well as experience working on the 2020 Census and the We Draw Oregon redistricting campaign, Jaylyn has developed a clear understanding of what it takes to get out the Native vote and engage tribal members in democratic processes.

Getting out the vote in between presidential elections is always difficult, but Native communities face unique barriers. For example, on the Warm Springs Reservation addresses are not geocoded, so it is not possible to use the Voter Activation Network for voter outreach. In addition, gerrymandering often splits the Native vote or weakens it. And politicians and candidates from outside tribal communities often ignore Native voters, not bothering to engage them in campaigns and elections. They don’t understand tribal governments or tribal sovereignty.

Tribal Democracy Project sees an opportunity to educate Native community members and others about tribal governments, sovereignty, and treaty rights. They also see opportunities to increase Native voter turnout and empower Native candidates to run for office.

Some early wins include increasing voter turnout on the Warm Springs Reservation by 50% above normal and flipping the Redmond School Board to a progressive majority during the May 2025 election. Tribal Democracy Project actively managed five school board races in Central Oregon, which were all of the competitive races in the Jefferson 509-J, Redmond 2J, and Bend- La Pine school districts, winning four of five and getting a Tribal candidate re-elected after running her successful campaign in 2023 as well. Not only did TDP build and execute the campaign plans for these candidates, but they also ran the paid media operations in-house and built the successful organizational coalition that included the Working Families Party, Next Up, and Basic Rights Oregon. The Redmond school board races were of special significance, not only because the district is a +27 R voter advantage, but also because there is now a majority on the board that shares our policy objectives of expanding the curriculum to teach local Tribal history and changing the electoral format of school board elections to proportional ranked choice voting.

In the next couple of years, Tribal Democracy Project plans to run a campaign for proportional ranked choice voting (PRCV) in Deschutes County, as well as a no gerrymandering campaign in 2026. Although Native Americans are only 4% of the population, they are more highly concentrated in some areas than others. PRCV and lawful redistricting would give Native Americans a fair chance at reflective representation.

Tribal Democracy Project has a goal of working with all nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon, along with their overlapping counties. They look toward a future where Oregon protects tribal sovereignty and more Native leaders hold office, not just on tribal councils, but on school boards, county commissions, city councils, and the state legislature.

We’re excited to fund Tribal Democracy Project through our Civic Health initiative, and to have their sharp minds and expertise as part of the Build Shared Infrastructure program.