Democrat Deb Haaland can now add first Native American female governor in U.S. history to the list of barriers she has broken. Haaland was declared the winner over Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor, to lead New Mexico.
In 2018, the Laguna Pueblo citizen was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Then she became the first Native American Cabinet secretary, running President Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior. Charles Curtis, from the Kaw Nation, was the first Native Cabinet member as President Herbert Hoover’s vice president.
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Oklahoma was the only state to elect a tribal citizen for governor — Democrat Johnston Murray in the 1950s and current Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Haaland shrugged off a question about her various political identities in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
“I mean, somebody has to be the first,” she said. “I just don’t want to be the last, right?”
But she says she's proud to see how Indigenous people care about representation as other Native women run. “It truly does matter,” Haaland said. “It’s not just a slogan.”
