Voters in the Navajo Nation will choose a new president on Tuesday in a presidential election that has no candidate openly backing coal. The race marks a break from recent contests, with the winner set to inherit decisions that could affect the Navajo Mine and the coal-fired plant it supplies.
Buu Nygren said in January that coal supports hundreds of jobs and generates millions of dollars in revenue for the Navajo Nation. He said, “Because those are hundreds and hundreds of jobs” and “Those are millions and millions of dollars of revenue that the Navajo Nation receives. That’s coal that some of you haul and get for free from some of our chapters.”
July primary left Nygren out
Nygren was not among the candidates advancing from the July primary, along with 13 other candidates. Justin Jones and Crystalyne Curley moved into the general election after campaign positions that rejected coal mining as part of the next administration’s platform.
Jones said in an October debate at Arizona State University in Phoenix, “I’m opposed to coal mining” and “I’m opposed to any form of mining that’s where a shovel will go, blast it and get resources out.” Curley said at the same debate, “Coal is dying. It’s not coming back. So you do need an administration to say that this is the new plan to move forward.”
Navajo Mine and revenue stakes
The Navajo Mine is the last remaining coal mine on the tribal reservation and sits in the Four Corners region of New Mexico. Its output supports a coal-fired power plant owned by Arizona Public Service, and that plant could remain up and running until 2038. The Navajo Nation has close to half a million enrolled citizens worldwide.
Andrew Curley said, “Based on my conversations with voters, people were upset” about Nygren’s coal politics. He also said, “It reflected a politics I think a lot of people on the reservation reject — and is unattuned to the real struggles, real challenges for the coal economy.”
Trump, coal and voter reaction
Last year, Nygren took a selfie with Donald Trump at the White House when Trump signed an executive order aimed at saving the coal industry. Nygren was also an Arizona delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention. That sequence left him aligned with Trump’s coal agenda, even as voters sent him out of the primary and into the role of incumbent rather than finalist.
Tuesday’s vote will decide whether the next president keeps the Navajo Nation tied to coal-related jobs and revenue or shifts away from that economy. The choice now sits with voters in the Navajo Nation, who are deciding whether the next administration will treat the mine as part of the future or part of a closing chapter.
