By Matthew Reichbach
Former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland made it official on Tuesday with a YouTube video: She is running for governor.
“Lowering costs, making rent and housing affordable, strengthening our schools, and preventing crimes so that you feel safe raising a family here,” Haaland said in her video. “The solutions are there if we are fierce enough to choose them.”
Haaland, who previously represented the state’s 1st Congressional District, is the first major name to announce a run for governor in 2026.
Her announcement is not a surprise. A spokesperson for Haaland said in January that she was prepping a run and assembling a campaign team.
Haaland served as the Secretary of the Interior under President Joe Biden after her one term in Congress. She was the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet-level official in the federal government. Haaland is an enrolled member of Laguna Pueblo.
Michelle Lujan Grisham, also a Democrat, is term-limited, and cannot run for a third consecutive term.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, long rumored as a name who would seek the office, announced earlier this year that he would forgo a run and remain in the U.S. Senate. Heinrich won his third term in the Senate last year.
Sam Bregman, the 2nd Judicial District Attorney, is also reportedly considering a run.
On the Republican side, Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull said he is considering running for governor.
With no incumbent, the two largest political parties in the state will likely host contested primaries next year.
Democrats have won every statewide election in New Mexico since 2016, when Republican Judith Nakamura won reelection to the state Supreme Court.
However, no party has maintained control of the Governor’s Mansion for three consecutive terms since the 1980s, when governors were barred from running for a second consecutive term.
You have my support
How could she run for governor as she was an accomplice in hiding the mental capacity of President Biden. Disgraceful!
Haaland did such a bang-up job helping to make sure CA didn’t have water for fires with her “it’s about dam time” propaganda. Let’s give her control of a whole desert state!
Halland should be disqualified from running for Governor since she was an accomplice in hiding Biden’s cognitive decline. She is now an embarrassment to the great state of New Mexico.
Something needs to be done about the healthcare in New Mexico. And for the better of the people.
Deb Haland did not distinguish herself as Secretary of the Interior which does not give me much hope that she is qualified to be New Mexico’s Governor. I would like to hear her plans to make our State a true economic engine. It will not come from tourism, movie production, or other alternative sources. Our economic engine is under our ground. It produces budget surpluses and consistent real wealth for our State but everyone HATES the industries born out of what God has given us UNDER our ground. It would behoove our leaders AND citizens to study those gifts and how to use them to our advantage and in the safest ways possible to NM being able to produce wealth for our State.
When we go after those under-the-ground “gifts”…”God has given us” we are in truth, plundering, looting, pillaging, laying waste to, ransacking (pick a word) the gifts we were given by the Creator. Let’s get real. In this context “wealth” equals greed. We can do better.
If the people of New Mexico elect Deb Haaland they will get a liberal governor that will make MLG look like a right wing conservative.