Deb Haaland

Haaland was born in 1960 in Winslow, Arizona, and is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna.⁠[1][2]

She grew up in a military family, attended 13 public schools and graduated from Highland High School in Albuquerque.⁠[3]

While raising her daughter as a single mother, she took catering jobs and ran Pueblo Salsa, a small business producing and canning salsa. At 34 she earned a B.A. in English from the University of New Mexico in 1994, and in 2006 she received a J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law.⁠[3][1]

Haaland chaired the board of directors of the Laguna Development Corporation; her campaign biography says she advocated there for small businesses and for protecting land and water.⁠[1][3]

From 2013 to 2015 Haaland was tribal administrator of San Felipe Pueblo. In 2014 she ran for lieutenant governor as the Democratic running mate of gubernatorial nominee Gary King; the ticket lost to Republican incumbents Susana Martinez and John Sanchez, 42.8% to 57.2%.⁠[1][1]

From 2015 to 2017 she chaired the Democratic Party of New Mexico.⁠[1]

In 2018 Haaland defeated Republican Janice Arnold-Jones 59.1% to 36.3% to win New Mexico’s 1st congressional district, becoming one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress; she served from 2019 to 2021.⁠[1][2][4]

Her campaign biography lists her priorities in Congress as clean energy jobs, pandemic relief for small businesses and restaurants, broadband expansion and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and says seven of her bills were signed into law by President Trump.⁠[3]

Haaland was nominated as U.S. secretary of the interior on December 17, 2020; the Senate confirmed her by a 51–40 vote on March 15, 2021, and she took office on March 16, serving under President Joe Biden until January 20, 2025, as the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history.⁠[1][2][4]

At Interior she created the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. Her campaign biography says she led nearly 70,000 employees and helped protect 13.5 million acres of land.⁠[2][3]

Two weeks after announcing her run for governor of New Mexico, Haaland officially launched her campaign on February 11, 2025, naming listening to communities, safety and the cost of living as priorities; in her launch video she said: “The solutions are there if we are fierce enough to choose them.”⁠[4]

On June 2, 2026, Haaland defeated Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman 72.4% to 27.6% to win the Democratic nomination for governor; the Associated Press called the race about 30 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m.⁠[1][5]

In the gubernatorial election on November 3, 2026, Haaland defeated Republican Gregg HullGregg HullGregg Hull is an American Republican politician and businessman who was mayor of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, from 2014 to 2026, the city’s longest-serving mayor, and was the Republican nominee for governor of New Mexico in 2026.Open the full entry, a former mayor of Rio Rancho; the Associated Press called the race for her at 8:40 p.m. Mountain time based on unofficial results showing her with 57.2% of the vote. She became the first Native American woman elected governor in New Mexico and in the United States; before her, Oklahoma was the only state to have elected a tribal citizen as governor.⁠[2]

During the campaign she raised more than $20 million, nearly 10 times Hull’s total.⁠[2]

After her victory she pledged: “I will create a path toward universal healthcare.” She said her first action as governor would be an executive order imposing a statewide moratorium on new large-scale data centers until the Legislature passes a bill curtailing them, and pledged to strengthen public education, repair the Children, Youth, and Families Department and address violent crime and fentanyl.⁠[2]

She is set to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on January 1, 2027.⁠[2][1]

Deb Haaland for New Mexico: Official website: https://debhaaland.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

X: Public account: https://x.com/DebHaalandNM (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DebHaalandNM (opens in a new window).⁠[6]