I’m right about the numbers but probably wrong about the conclusion.
From the NM SOS office for District 3:
BEN R. LUJAN
DEMOCRATIC PARTY 40.81%
JEFFERSON L. BYRD
REPUBLICAN PARTY 59.19%
For President:
BARACK OBAMA and JOE BIDEN
DEMOCRATIC PARTY 34.29%
MITT ROMNEY and PAUL RYAN
REPUBLICAN PARTY 62.39%
San Juan County produces coal, oil, and natural gas, and has two large coal-fired power plant complexes. Though the Navajo Reservation occupies a large area of the county it is sparsely populated compared to the big communities of Farmington, Bloomfield and Aztec. Jobs are important to the people in the area and Obama’s threats to curtail oil and gas production, and shut down coal fired power plants no doubt contributed to voters pulling the lever for Republicans. I suspect, however, that the largely Navajo areas voted as you said.
Yes, San Juan County voted even more heavily for Romney than it did for McCain (62.57% for Romney vs. 59.92% for McCain), although still not as high as the 65.60% it gave to Bush in 2004. As you mentioned, the reservations are far less populated than Farmington, etc. While the county’s population is 37% Native American, I doubt that 37% of voters are Native American, much less Navajo. But you may be right that Navajos vote a bit less Democrat in San Juan County than in Apache County, AZ to its west or in McKinley County, NM to its south.