Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member and former Interior Secretary, won New Mexico’s governor race with about 57% of the vote, becoming the first Native American woman to lead a U.S. state, according to election-night reports.
ALBUQUERQUE — Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, was elected governor of New Mexico on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, becoming the first Native American woman to lead a U.S. state, according to election-night reports. Haaland, 65, defeated Republican Gregg Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, with about 57% of the vote.
She takes office on Jan. 1, 2027, succeeding Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, who reached her term limit. Reports on the race say the result ends a pattern of more than 40 years in which New Mexico alternated between Democratic and Republican governors, handing the Democrats a statehouse that voters have not let one party hold for long.
Haaland arrives with a résumé that was already historic. In 2018 she was one of the first two Native American women elected to the U.S. House, alongside Sharice Davids. In 2021 she became the first Native American to run a Cabinet department, serving as Interior Secretary under President Joe Biden. Reports say she raised more than $20 million for the governor’s race and ran on public education, health care access, public safety and the fight against fentanyl, along with a bigger role for tribal leaders in state decisions.
Why it matters
It also lands in a week when Democrats broke through in Texas and Kansas and Texas elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1988. For American readers, the story is bigger than one statehouse. New Mexico borders Texas and Mexico, sits on major energy reserves and has a large Hispanic and tribal population, so who governs it shapes oil and gas policy, border security and federal land use. Haaland’s Interior record, which included limits on drilling on federal land, is the first thing energy producers will look at.
One of her first announced moves points the same way: an executive order for a moratorium on new large data centers until the legislature writes clear rules. Supporters call it caution about water and power use; critics will see a governor freezing investment before the rules exist. Either way, it is the first test of how she plans to govern.
The record
The facts above come from election-night reporting and the material provided to The Watch Post Daily by its editor, and the final certified count has not been independently reviewed by this newsroom. The vote share and the details of the data-center order should be read as reported, not as official. Reports also say Minnesota’s Peggy Flanagan, of the Ojibwe White Earth Nation, was elected the first Native American woman in the U.S. Senate the same night, a result we have not independently confirmed.
On election night at the Route 66 Casino, on Laguna Pueblo land, Haaland said: “Today is not just about history — it is about our future.” She wore titanium dragonfly earrings by Laguna Pueblo artist Pat Pruitt, a symbol of transformation and flight.
The milestone is real, and it deserves to be reported plainly. What comes next is the part voters will judge: whether a governor who spent four years restricting energy on federal land can deliver the growth, safety and jobs she promised on a state budget that depends heavily on oil and gas.
The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Sources: election-night reports and material supplied by the editor.
Featured image: Secretary Deb Haaland, official headshot by the U.S. Department of the Interior, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
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