Kevin Abourezk, Pauly Denetclaw, and Stewart HuntingtonICT

LAGUNA PUEBLO LANDS – Deb Haaland, one of the country’s first Native congresswomen and the first Native woman to serve as a cabinet secretary, became the first Native woman governor Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for the Laguna Pueblo woman shortly before 11 p.m. EST with 64 percent of precincts partially and fully reporting.

Haaland was holding a solid lead over her Republican opponent, Greggory Hull, with 57 percent of the vote. That news sparked a festive mood at her campaign’s watch party at the Pueblo of Laguna’s Route 66 Casino 18 miles west of Albuquerque.

The mood was further lifted for the more than 500 people gathered in a casino conference when word came that Democrats had won control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Navajo Nation Vice President Richelle Montoya spoke before the news was announced.

“If we elect Deb Haaland as our New Mexico governor, it’ll be a historic moment that anybody should be a part of,” she told ICT. “Especially to watch this happen for our young men and women that have never seen in an Indian American Indian, become a governor of a state in the United States.”

A woman holds a Deb Haaland for New Mexico governor sign at a watch party at the Pueblo of Laguna’s Route 66 Casino west of Albuquerque on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, was elected as the nation’s first Native woman governor. (Stewart Huntington / ICT)

Stephanie Garcia Richard, the former public lands commissioner for New Mexico, will serve as Haaland’s lieutenant governor.

On Nov. 3, 2018, Haaland was elected as the U.S. representative for New Mexico’s 1st congressional district and joined Sharice Davids, Ho-Chunk Nation of Minnesota, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the same time, as the first two women to become members of Congress.

Haaland was elected to two terms, leaving the post in 2021 after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination by former President Joe Biden as Secretary of the Interior, where she focused on repairing morale in the multibillion-dollar agency in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s first term.

She also launched the department’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which involved her traveling across the country on a “Road to Healing” tour that gathered testimony from boarding school survivors and their families. The initiative also included the publication of two Indian boarding school investigative reports in 2022 and 2024 that included recommendations, starting with a presidential apology by Biden.

Haaland’s gubernatorial campaign focused on affordability issues, from healthcare to college tuition.

About 63 percent of votes in the 2022 race for governor in New Mexico were cast early or by absentee ballot. Entering Election Day, 456,726 New Mexico voters had already cast their ballots via early and absentee voting — more than 17,000 votes more than four years ago.

Early voting results showed 40.7 percent of registered Democrats voted as compared to 31.8 percent of registered Republicans, according to Secretary of State’s Office data.

Laguna Pueblo tribal Governor Harry Antonio Jr.

Outside the Pueblo of Laguna Tribal Administrative Building Tuesday morning, tribal Governor Harry Antonio Jr. paused to reflect on the fact that tribal members had the opportunity to vote for one of their own to lead the state’s government.

“This is a monumental occasion,” he told ICT. “I am proud of that.”

He said he felt good that someone steeped in Indigenous values had the chance to lead New Mexico. “We don’t have all the answers in Indian Country,” he said. But the traditional values have served the ancestors for thousands of years and are a good starting point for looking forward, he said. “This is who we are.”

Pueblo of Laguna citizen Nicholas Cheromiah said he was happy to vote for Haaland but that, perhaps paradoxically, it didn’t feel novel. “It felt, in some ways, normal,” he told ICT. “I think we’re finally getting to the point where we get enough people that are activists within our community that have kind of moved the degree of participation in our communities” to a strong level. “I feel like at least we have somebody that understands our Indian Country needs.”

Fellow Laguna citizen Shayai Lucero was more direct.

Shayai Lucero, Laguna Pueblo

“I think that the environmental connection that our Indigenous people, our Native people, have to this area is really important. I always tell folks that our Pueblo people are very lucky, because we were never forcibly removed from our area where our ancestors came from,” she told ICT, standing outside of the Laguna Burger restaurant in Laguna Pueblo.

“And so I think what being a Pueblo person and being tied to the land where your ancestors were from, gives you a unique perspective … for taking care of the rights, the water rights, the land rights, the mineral rights,” she said. “And I think (Haaland) having that kind of perspective, it’s going to give a unique twist to our state. … I’m just excited.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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