Michigan State Senator Sean McCann, a citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is running for Congress in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District. He won the Democratic primary in August and is challenging incumbent Rep. Bill Huizenga in November. ICT reports that McCann won the primary with 67 percent of the vote. Incidentally, McCann’s democratic primary opponent was also a tribal member: Diop Harris, a citizen of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi.
If elected, McCann would represent a Michigan district that includes the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, and the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (the Gun Lake Tribe).
McCann’s candidacy is a remarkable example of a citizen of a Tribe whose people were displaced from the Great Lakes who’s now seeking to represent a Michigan district where several other Potawatomi governments remain.
McCann has spent more than a decade in the Michigan legislature and has worked on natural resources, appropriations, energy, and other subjects that affect Tribal governments. Indian affairs, however, haven’t been a prominent part of his public legislative profile. Apart from opposing prediction markets, which he described to ICT as an infringement on tribal sovereignty, his campaign emphasizes affordability, health care, jobs, energy costs, and elections rather than a developed platform on Tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, federal trust obligations, Indian health, or Tribal jurisdiction. His campaign priorities are here.
Asked by ICT about the Potawatomi Tribes in the district, McCann said their population, history, and heritage are important and that he’d be “thrilled to lift up and work with tribal folks” if elected. ICT’s interview is here.
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