SANTA FE, N.M. — Deb Haaland, who championed conservation and clean energy during her tenure as Interior secretary, is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico, the nation’s No. 2 oil production state.

Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo and the nation’s first Native American cabinet secretary under President Joe Biden, could be the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state. New Mexico has 23 federally recognized tribes, including large portions of the Navajo Nation, as well as land holdings of the Fort Sill Apache.

She’s the first to begin assembling her machine for what will be a lengthy campaign — Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham terms out of office at the end of 2026. Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich ruled himself out of the governor’s race last week, and no Republican candidates have initiated a run.

Scott Forrester confirmed his hiring as campaign manager on Monday. While a team of veteran political strategists and others is being assembled, formal paperwork still has to be filed with the secretary of state.

Political Landscape in New Mexico

The governor’s office in New Mexico has flipped between Democratic and Republican control since the 1980s. President Donald Trump has gained popularity in New Mexico while still losing three elections in the heavily Hispanic and Native American border state.

But Democrats have consolidated control over every elected statewide office and all congressional and U.S. Senate seats, and now have broad majorities in the state House and Senate.

Winning the top state office would put Haaland — a former congresswoman, state party chairwoman and backroads political canvasser for President Barack Obama — at the helm of a state enjoying a financial windfall from the nation’s fastest growing zone for oil production, the Permian Basin that overlaps portions of New Mexico and western Texas.

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Haaland’s Stance on Energy and Conservation

Haaland hasn’t been shy about voicing opposition to unfettered oil and gas development and support for the Green New Deal, the sweeping proposals meant to move the United States rapidly to low-carbon energy. At the same time, oil and gas leasing and production reached record levels during the Biden administration, with the U.S. now producing more fossil fuels than ever before.

Haaland noted in her last interview as Interior Secretary with The Associated Press that this fossil fuels boom was made possible even as other federal land was protected from development.

“As it turns out, you don’t have to lease millions and millions of acres,” Haaland said. “We really worked at zeroing in on where these leases should happen so that we can ensure that other land is open to conservation.”

Whether she would bring this sense of balance to New Mexico is yet to be seen, but it’s sure to be a campaign issue given the importance of oil and gas revenues.

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New Mexico’s Fiscal Windfall and Policy Approaches

Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico have carved out a progressive framework for investing and redistributing the state’s fiscal windfall to help underwrite everything from free meals at all public schools, to zero-tuition college and trade schools, to discount childcare and tax incentives geared toward families with children.

The Republican nominee for governor in 2022 — former television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti — proposed a different approach to spending these revenues: individual rebates along with educational stipends for families aimed at improving early literacy. He lost to Lujan Grisham in 2022 by a 6-point margin.

New Mexico’s annual oil production recently surpassed that of North Dakota, the home of Trump’s nominee to succeed Haaland in leading the Interior Department, Doug Burgum.