Deb Haaland elected New Mexico governor, first Native American woman

Democrat Deb Haaland, 65, has won the race for governor of New Mexico, becoming the first Native American woman to lead a US state. She defeated Republican candidate Gregg Hull, a businessman and longtime mayor of Rio Rancho.

From Congress to the Cabinet

Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She first rose to national prominence in 2018, when she was elected to the House of Representatives. Together with Sharice Davids of Kansas, she became one of the first two Native American women in that chamber.

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, he appointed her Secretary of the Interior. That made Haaland the first Native American woman in a US presidential Cabinet.

Before that, she had worked in the administration of the San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico. She later joined the board of Laguna Development Corporation, which runs the business operations of the Pueblo of Laguna, and became the first woman on that board. In 2012, she helped mobilize Native voters in the state during Barack Obama’s campaign. In 2014, she ran for lieutenant governor of New Mexico but lost. A few years later, she became the first Native American woman to chair a state political party.

Her own path: single mother and lawyer after thirty

Haaland leaned heavily on her own life story during the campaign. As a single mother, she struggled with money and relied on government programs: Medicaid, WIC and food assistance. She earned her law degree only after turning thirty.

Why the win matters for New Mexico

Indigenous people make up about 12% of New Mexico’s population, yet their political representation was long held back by barriers. Native Americans in the state gained the right to vote only in 1948, when Miguel Trujillo, a World War II veteran from the Isleta Pueblo, sued after Native people were barred from voting.

In 2023, New Mexico became the first, and so far the only, US state to pass an updated law protecting Native voting rights. It gave tribes more say over the location of polling places and the drawing of district boundaries.

Haaland’s victory comes at a time when Native communities are making themselves increasingly heard in American politics. According to The Guardian, a record 358 Indigenous politicians ran for office at various levels in the current election cycle.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz