Justin Jones advances while Crystalyne Curley calls for a new plan
Buu Nygren lost the 2026 Navajo Nation presidential primary after promising to keep the reservation’s last coal mine open, and Justin Jones advanced to face current Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley. A KJZZ report by Gabriel Pietrorazio, carried by NPR, said the Navajo Nation presidential race was the first in decades without a candidate who supports coal. The Navajo Nation counts nearly half a million enrolled members.
Coal had been the tribe’s economic bedrock for generations, but voter sentiment is changing. The result gives the Navajo Nation a choice between two candidates who advanced without making support for coal a campaign requirement, even as jobs, revenue and heating remain tied to the industry.
Nygren, the sitting president, was a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention but aligned with President Trump on coal. Trump was reversing his predecessor’s efforts to phase out fossil-fuel use, while Nygren used a January annual address to promise to keep the last remaining coal mine on the reservation open and support the sole power plant it fuels.
“Because those are hundreds and hundreds of jobs. Those are millions and millions of dollars of revenue that the Navajo Nation receives,” Nygren said.
Nygren also said some people haul coal and get it free from Navajo chapters. He pointed to households far from conventional energy grids that continue to rely on coal for heat.
Voters rejected Nygren. He and 13 other candidates did not get past the primary; Jones did.
Jones, an attorney and former liaison for a coal mine in New Mexico, said, “I’m opposed to coal mining.” He also said, “I’m opposed to any form of mining that’s where a shovel will go, blast it and get resources out.”
Crystalyne Curley, currently the speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, is Jones’ opponent. Curley said, “Coal is dying. It’s not coming back. So you do need an administration that will say, this is the new plan to move forward.”
Nygren took a selfie with Trump at the White House last year when Trump signed an executive order aimed at saving the “beautiful, clean coal industry.” Andrew Curley, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who wrote a book on Navajo energy industry politics, said the episode hurt Nygren’s reelection chances. Curley is not related to Crystalyne Curley but campaigned for her.
“Based on my conversations with voters, people were upset. It kind of 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,” Andrew Curley said.
Curley was also a candidate for Navajo president this cycle but did not advance beyond the primary. He said it was significant that candidates no longer felt they needed to embrace the coal industry.
“And I think that’s good. I think it’s good that both sides are kind of moving in this direction to think about the land in terms of sustainability, not just resources and extraction,” Curley said.
Dailin Long, 44, lives on the reservation near the last remaining coal mine. The report said the Trump administration recently approved the mine for expansion. Long had voted for Nygren in the past but said he was glad Nygren was no longer on the ballot.
“Our hope was that he would establish a legacy that speaks to our generation, and it seems that, unfortunately, he kind of just blended in with the status quo,” Long said.
Long said his family could be displaced by the coal mine. After listening to what the remaining candidates have to say about coal, he said he just hoped it was not campaign rhetoric yet again.
“I really do hope they take it to heart and really consider we need an energy policy that works for us,” Long said.
For now, the Navajo Nation owns and continues to operate a major coal mining company with mines in New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana. The political result leaves the next presidential choice without a candidate who supports the industry, while coal remains part of the Navajo economy.