Myron Lizer is the former Vice President of the Navajo Nation (2019–2023, under Jonathan Nez), an Ace Hardware business owner, and a 2014 presidential candidate, running again for President. His interview with Cal Nez was wide-ranging and candid — economic sovereignty, his VP record, government reform, sovereignty and party politics, and housing, veterans, and health care — though the recording was interrupted by repeated connection problems. Below are the main topics from the interview — the key question Cal asked on each, short summaries of Lizer's answers in our own words, and follow-ups a voter might still want answered.
Watch or read the full interview, and see the scorecard, on Myron Lizer’s profile. This page is a nonpartisan summary; the Diné Civic Center does not endorse any candidate.
Lizer centers economic sovereignty and visionary leadership, leaning on being one of only two candidates with executive-branch experience — as former Vice President he says he understands the government's protocol, hierarchy, and many working pieces rather than fixating on a single issue.
Lizer candidly admitted he should have pushed harder — his $160 million economic-development request from the $714 million CARES Act got “horse-traded” down to roughly $30 million (directed to artisan grants) while he traveled advocating at the federal level; he says the Nation needs a better system to deploy big funding like CARES and ARPA. He cited breaking from President Nez on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts and on pandemic mandates.
Lizer would build unity through intentional communication — get every grievance on the table, then “fight the issue, not each other,” modeling government on a high-communication business. He was candid the branches aren't balanced: from his VP vantage, the judicial branch “makes decisions for you” rather than advising and should return to an advisory role; the three branches are a three-legged stool that must be equal.
Lizer traced the reform to the post-1989 consolidation of power (the ousting of Peter MacDonald) and said true reform must run through every Title of the Code; he estimated it could take roughly 16 years — four terms — and “all hands on deck,” and was candid it isn't something he'd put forward as a single-term platform.
Lizer is openly Republican and endorsed Trump but says he leaves the party hat at the Nation's border, since Navajo has no party system; he frames Navajo as “a sovereign within a sovereign” that should assert inherent sovereignty. He argues Indian Country was left out of the post-WWII Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe and Japan, and would use his federal relationships to push energy development and capital to bring tribal lands into the 21st century.
Lizer would honor veterans by matching their sacrifice — building homes cheaper via a Navajo-based manufacturing factory (he's scouted 3D-printed cement homes and sweat-equity “Eco Panel” homes), partnering with a Northern Agency veterans 501c3 that holds a 25-year lease on a 33,000-square-foot building (needing roughly $5–10 million in startup capital). On health care he backs the 638 model for its flexibility and self-governance, would leverage IHS's budget increase and federal partners, and stressed better oversight — transparency and accountability with boards in sync with their communities.
Topics a voter in this district might still want to hear about:
Not a judgment of this candidate — just what a specific, substantive answer includes, so you can weigh any candidate’s response: