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Buu Nygren wins Navajo Nation president race, beats incumbent

Buu Nygren
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Buu Nygren beat out Jonathan Nez as president of the Navajo Nation.

As the Associated Press reported, it's a position that wields influence across the United States because of the size of the tribe’s reservation.

The reservation, located in the U.S. Southwest, has a huge population.

35-year-old Nygren campaigned on being the candidate for change. While he has experience in construction management, he has never held political office.

The race was nonpartisan, and Nygren told voters he would get some of the nation's most long-awaited projects going.

“I’ve said it time and time again, that we want to do the things that are tough,” he said at an event at the fairgrounds in the tribal capital of Window Rock.

Nygren's win with running mate Richelle Montoya puts an elected woman in the President and Vice President's office for the first time in Navajo Nation history.