Deb Haaland leads New Mexico governor race, Digi Mart USA News (New Mexico, United States): Democratic candidate Deb Haaland appears to be the winner in the contest for governor of New Mexico, United States, according to first projections.
Haaland, born in Winslow, Arizona, is a politician of Indigenous ancestry who belongs to the Democratic Party and is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, a Native American community located in the state she now stands to lead.
She served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from March 2021 under then-President Joe Biden, leaving the post in January 2025 at the end of the administration’s term.
Before that, she represented New Mexico’s first congressional district from 2019 to 2021.
Haaland became the first Native American woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet and one of the first Native American women elected to Congress.
Her political involvement began in 2012, when she directed the New Mexico campaign for Native American voters during Barack Obama’s presidential reelection.
Her first electoral race came in 2014, when she ran for lieutenant governor alongside gubernatorial candidate Gary King, but lost to Republicans Susana Martínez and John Sánchez. In 2015 she became chair of the state Democratic Party, a role she held until 2017.
Haaland received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Mexico in 1994 and a Juris Doctor with a focus on Indian law from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2006. The publisher notes that the report has not been independently verified.
