Claire Valdez, Representative-elect from New York, photo from Native News Online.net, by Claire Valdez for Congress
As of November 2026, Claire Valdez is the first Native American elected to represent New York State in the US Congress. She is a member of the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, a federally-recognim kit zed tribe in Texas.
Valdez won 83% of the vote to represent her residential district in New York City's borough of Queens. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.
As a resident of New York, but a native of Texas, she may be the only Native in Congress representing a state that is not the home base for her tribe. New York City itself had a Native population of over 180,000 in 2024, according the the US Census.
