ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Senate voted Friday to confirm Mark Cruz, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, to lead the federal agency that provides healthcare for some 2.8 million Native American and Alaska Native patients.
Cruz was confirmed to serve a four-year term as director of the Indian Health Service, a position that has sat vacant since late 2025.
At his July confirmation hearing, Cruz said he would advocate “ferociously” to improve health outcomes in Indian Country and bring lived experience to the role.
“My family, my friends and my tribal community will live with the consequences of the work I do for decades to come," Cruz told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Cruz was confirmed by a 51-47 vote along with more than 70 other nominees of President Donald Trump — one of the Senate's last actions before taking an August recess.
Cruz is a senior adviser on tribal health to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and will retain that newly created role while leading the IHS. In Trump's first administration, Cruz oversaw the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development under the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The IHS operates 21 hospitals and 78 smaller health centers nationwide as part of the federal government's legal responsibility to provide healthcare for Native Americans. The average age of those facilities is around 40 years old and one-third are in “poor” physical condition, according to a 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
Cruz assumes leadership of an agency grappling with stubbornly high provider vacancy rates and a 30-year backlog of facilities in need of replacement. He has pledged to address those challenges, better insulate tribal health programs from federal budget impasses and fund overhead costs tribes take on when they manage their own healthcare systems.
In a statement Friday, the National Congress of American Indians said Cruz's confirmation comes at a “critical time.”
“We congratulate him on his confirmation and look forward to working together to ensure the federal government fully upholds its trust and treaty obligations,” NCAI executive director Larry Wright Jr. said.
This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.
Mark Cruz, senior Health and Human Services advisor and citizen of the Klamath Tribes, poses for a portrait at the Pueblo of Sandia, in central New Mexico, near Albuquerque, on Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Savannah Peters)
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democrats on Friday urged voters to rally behind their statewide candidates, three days after a bitter U.S. Senate contest highlighted divisions between the progressive and moderate wings of the party.
A slate of nominees and other notable Democrats spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 voters. The crowd cheered the loudest for Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who narrowly beat establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious and closely watched primary for an open Senate seat.
“Michigan, we will fight to build the America we are proud to hand off to our kids and our grandkids,” El-Sayed said at a podium beneath a scoreboard in a Detroit high school gym.
With less than three months before the general election where El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, the Democratic Party is under pressure to close ranks in a race that will help determine control of the Senate.
“In the spirit of coming together, I want to thank both of my colleagues who ran," El-Sayed said. "Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow ran an incredible race.” McMorrow suspended her campaign in July.
Current Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ decision to not seek reelection left the seat open. Michigan is a perennial battleground state, having voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Trump again in 2024.
The rally followed a messy primary campaign that occasionally got personal. El-Sayed told Semafor in early July that Stevens couldn’t “string together two coherent sentences.” In a separate interview, he called Stevens “the least capable candidate in America.”
Stevens, in turn, accused El-Sayed of chasing publicity.
“I’m the only one on this stage who doesn’t have a talent agent trying to pitch me for paid speeches,” she said during a debate against El-Sayed. “And unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see.”
Stevens, who lost the primary by just under 1 percentage point, told CBS News on Thursday that she was willing to campaign with El-Sayed.
“Whatever he wants me to do,” she said. Stevens appeared Thursday with El-Sayed at a breakfast hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party.
At the Friday event, gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, who easily won her primary, also spoke. She will face Trump-backed Rep. John James in the general election.
Other statewide candidates who spoke included Eli Savit, who is running for attorney general, and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is running for secretary of state.
Before the rally started, attendee Tom Moran carried a banner that read “Unite behind the winner.” The school bus driver from Fenton, Michigan, voted for Stevens in the primary.
“Now I’m saying, take the pledge. Unite behind our nominee,” Moran, 71, said.
GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Supporters arrive at a General Election Kickoff Rally for Michigan Demcrats at Renaissance High School Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Abdul El-Sayed departs following a news conference at the Spirit of Detroit shortly after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
