Haaland becomes first Native American woman to lead a state
File photo: REUTERS
Former Department of the Interior secretary under Joe Biden, Deb Haaland, won the election in New Mexico, securing her place as the first female Native American governor of a US state.
The 65-year-old Democrat defeated her 60-year-old Republican opponent, Gregg Hull, a businessman and the longtime mayor of Rio Rancho.
Haaland had previously broken boundaries as the first Indigenous cabinet secretary. Her victory in New Mexico, where Native Americans constitute 12 percent of the population, comes as Indigenous voters assert expanding electoral influence across the nation.
A member of the Laguna Pueblo, Haaland emerged as a rising star in national politics in 2018 when voters elected her to Congress alongside a wave of progressive freshman lawmakers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.
Following his 2020 election triumph, Biden named Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior.
Throughout her campaign, Haaland invoked her personal experience as a single mother navigating Medicaid, WIC, and Stamp assistance before entering law school in her 30s.
Earlier in her career, Haaland served as a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo and became the first woman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation board of directors. She subsequently directed the Native American vote in New Mexico for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.
After running for lieutenant governor in 2014 - in a race that Republicans ultimately won - she became the first Native American woman elected to lead a state political party.
When voters elected Haaland to Congress in 2018, she and Kansas Representative Sharice Davids became the first Native American women elected to the US Congress.
During the election cycle, a record-setting 358 Indigenous candidates ran for office in local, state, and federal elections nationwide. These contenders included former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola and Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, both of whom competed to become the first Native American women in the US Senate.
Although Native Americans have achieved major political power gains in recent years, reaching this point required a long struggle. The entire United States allowed Native Americans to vote only beginning in the 1960s.
In New Mexico, Native Americans secured the right to vote in 1948 after Miguel Trujillo, a World War II veteran and Isleta Pueblo tribal member, sued the state.
In 2023, New Mexico became the first and only state in the country to implement an updated Native American Voting Rights Act, which granted tribal communities greater input on polling locations and redistricting.
Source: The Guardian (adapted)
