Joe Shirley Jr. Wins Navajo Presidency

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In other election news, let’s follow-up on the Navajo Nation elections. As we reported yesterday, the nation had the choice between incumbent Joe Shirley Jr. and Linda Lovejoy. While Lovejoy never formed a public opinion on the homos, Shirley once fought for gay-marriage among the nation. His efforts, however, got squashed by the tribal council.

Well, it seems he’ll get another chance: he won reelection in last night’s vote. While only 100 of the 110 tribal chapter houses have turned in their votes, as of press time Shirley had 32,273 votes comparedto Lovejoy’s 27,997. While it’s tempting to think people voted for Shirley because of his progressive social stance, it’s more likely they voted for him either because they didn’t want to see the first female president and/or because he’s from Arizona: the state with the higest population of Navajo citizens. Lovejoy, the lady in question, hails from New Mexico.

As with so much right now, it’s unclear in what direction Shirley will take the Navajo Nation. Given his past battles for gay-equality, however, we’re hopeful he’ll give it a second go.

(Although, not being Navajo…or Indian, for that matter, we suppose it doesn’t really matter for us as individuals. But, you know, it’s always good to support. Who says we’re total haters?)

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