Image: 10th Annual Lumbee Powwow, Lumberton, NC, by bobistraveling, Wikimedia Commons
The Lumbee Tribe may help swing the state of North Carolina to Donald Trump in the 2024 election. The ex-president has been gaining ground in Robeson County, which is almost half Native American at 44%of its population.
Many Lumbee people are devout Christians, with a socially conservative bent, and their increasing rejection of the Democratic party is not surprising for many in this part of the Bible Belt. What might be surprising is that the White population of Robeson County is declining, losing 17, 638 people from 2010 to 2020.
In other words, as Robeson County loses its White population, it gains support for Donald Trump. Black voters in Robeson (22% of the population) are also increasing their support for Trump.
Robeson’s state representative is already a Republican, he is Jarrod Lowry, an ex-Marine who once served on the Lumbee governing council. Lowry explained many Lumbee people’s Republican leanings. “We are Christians, we’re very socially conservative, but we’re also working class.”
The loss of local factory jobs in the early 2000s, and Trump’s attacks on NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) attracted many Lumbee voters in 2016. Ironically, North Carolina as a state has been leaning more Democratic as its larger cities grow with newcomers from other regions.
Of the estimated 55,000 Lumbee people, at least 10,000 live in neighboring counties. The larger, next-door Cumberland County has enough Native people to also be included in the Lumbee Indian Statistical Area as defined by the US Census Bureau.
There is also a Lumbee University, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, in Robeson County. The Burnt Swamp Baptist Association, headquartered in Robeson, has a membership of seventy congregations.
Lumbee people have built these institutions without recognition by the federal government, and federal recognition as an American Indian Tribe is what Donald Trump promised the Lumbee people when he campaigned in 2020.
If federally recognized, the Lumbee Tribe will become the largest American Indian tribe east of the Mississippi River, and the fourth largest after the Navajo, Cherokee and Choctaw Nations.
Sources:
Mercer Booth, “The Lumbee Tribe’s Rightward Shift,” carolinapoliticalreview.org, February 9, 2024
Michael Kruse, “How Trump Won One of America’s Most Diverse Counties—By a lot,” Politico.com, December 1, 2020
John Henderson, “Trump Stirs up Passionate Crowd in Lumberton, Promises Lumbee Recognition, ”Fayetteville Observer, October 24, 2020.
Ana I. Sanchez-Rivera, Paul Jacobs and Cody Spence, “A Look at the Largest American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Villages in the Nation, Tribal Areas and States, Census.gov, October 3, 2023
“Roberson County, North Carolina”, Wikipedia and US Census.gov
Jarrod Lowry, North Carolina Legislature, ncleg.gov
