Outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is eyeing a run to be New Mexico’s next governor, according to three people familiar with her plans.
Haaland has been in discussions with political operatives in her home state about a gubernatorial run, said those people, who were granted anonymity to discuss Haaland’s plans before they were announced publicly. She has been in discussions with donors and activists for months about a potential gubernatorial bid, said one person familiar with her plans.
“I think she is more than considering it,” said John Wertheim, who served as chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party from 2004 until 2007. “I think it’s very likely.”
Haaland lost her 2014 bid to serve as New Mexico’s lieutenant governor but later won praise as chair of the state’s Democratic Party. She then won a seat as a New Mexico congresswoman and served four years as President Joe Biden’s Interior secretary.
A gubernatorial bid in 2026 — when New Mexico’s Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s term expires — could put Haaland in position to battle the incoming Trump administration on issues including public lands and environmental regulations.
A campaign for governor could also pit Haaland against New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich in a Democratic primary. Heinrich hasn’t announced he is running but is considered the strongest potential contender in a primary. Rumors that he would run in 2026 are swirling in New Mexico, although there’s also chatter that he would try to keep his energy perch in the Senate.
It wouldn’t be the first time the two have competed for a job: Biden weighed a trio of New Mexico Democratic lawmakers — Haaland, Heinrich and then-Sen. Tom Udall — when he filled his Cabinet.
Reports that Haaland is considering a return to elected politics, first reported Tuesday by Axios, come as little surprise, said Brian Colón, a former chair of the state Democratic Party and former state auditor.
“There’s not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t tell me: ‘Did you hear Deb’s coming home and she’s running for governor?’ It is front of mind. It is now to the point where it’s expected,” he added.
Colón — who first met Haaland in the 2008 election cycle, when she served as a political organizer for the state’s Indigenous populations and he served as the state chair — said he has raised the possibility with Haaland.
“I have talked to Secretary Haaland about her running for governor,” Colón said. “I have conveyed messages to her that people are telling me that they are excited about the idea of her coming home to run for governor.”
Asked about Haaland’s response, Colón said: “One thing about Deb is she’s a great listener. I know that when I’m telling her that people are excited about the idea of her coming home and running for governor, I know she’s listening.”
The Interior Department declined to comment for this story.
‘Not being very shy about it’
Joe Monahan, a political commentator in New Mexico and author of the blog New Mexico Politics With Joe Monahan, echoed Colón’s confidence that Haaland’s potential gubernatorial run is the worst-kept secret in New Mexico.
“They are not being very shy about it,” he said.
Wertheim thinks Haaland would “do very well” in a gubernatorial race, he said.
Haaland has “a really special temperament,” he said. “I know her quite well, and I’ve never heard her raise her voice, but at the same time, she has very strong convictions.”
Her approach to politics, her Native American roots and her record as Interior secretary could all serve as assets to Haaland, Wertheim said.
“New Mexico could be facing some very serious adverse consequences from the Trump administration” on everything from Medicaid and health care to public lands issues, he said. Given New Mexico’s expansive public lands, “her experience dealing with those issues is going to be extremely important,” Wertheim said.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) echoed admiration for Haaland’s “empathy and kindness,” and said New Mexicans would be proud to elevate a Native American woman to helm the state.
“I think that people are hungry for leadership that is from our communities, that represents our communities and our values,” she said. “As somebody who has fought her whole life at the grassroots level for Indigenous rights, for voting rights, who’s worked at the highest levels of government with the president and on foreign affairs, I think that she is positioned to be a historic governor, if she decides to run.”
Monahan said the gubernatorial race is a “natural” next step for Haaland and would be a historic win. Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, would be the second Native American governor in U.S. history and the first Native American female governor.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), a member of the Cherokee Nation, made history as the first U.S. governor to be enrolled in a Native American tribe when elected in 2018, though Stitt has since clashed with the state’s tribes over gambling revenues, and his heritage has been questioned by some.
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat and member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, was poised to become the first female Native American governor in the United States — had Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, left his seat to join a Kamala Harris administration.
New Mexicans — who also elected Republican Susana Martinez, the first Hispanic female governor in the U.S., in 2010 — may want to make history with Haaland, Monahan said.
The big question for New Mexico political watchers is whom Haaland will be running against.
Heinrich is viewed as the most formidable potential contender, said Gabriel Sanchez, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Both candidates would have strong name recognition and are successful at raising funds. Haaland was noted for that talent when she ran the state’s Democratic Party, he said.
“If Heinrich did not enter the picture, I don’t see too many other contenders that could rival Haaland in a statewide race,” Sanchez said. “But if Heinrich jumps in the race, that would be a very hard one to handicap. … It’d be really just a question about different demographics that would support each one.”
Heinrich declined to comment on a potential Haaland gubernatorial run during a brief interview in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
Separation from Biden?
Haaland was a progressive lawmaker when she was in the House and is broadly viewed that way by many voters. But she’s now aligned closely with the smorgasbord of the Biden administration’s policies. Biden had a 37 percent approval rating last month, down from a high of 57 percent when he first took office, according to Gallup.
“Haaland will have a little bit of a difficult time separating herself from an increasingly unpopular Biden administration,” Sanchez said.
Stansbury disagreed with that assessment, noting Haaland’s record on Native American issues and climate change.
“The idea that she should distance herself from the historic and extraordinary leadership that she’s done in the Biden administration doesn’t make sense,” she said. “New Mexicans are deeply proud of her to see her on the international stage, representing the greatest country in the world and our communities.”
Haaland has sometimes failed to impress on the national stage since joining the Biden administration, appearing ill-prepared on many subjects under her jurisdiction when asked to testify before Congress, Monahan said.
Those fumbles are in contrast to favorable national press attention — with a profile last year in The Washington Post’s style section, another earlier this year in the New Yorker that probed her role as the first Native American to oversee public lands and a more lighthearted recent interview on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
Monahan said Heinrich is in a “game of blink” with Haaland over running for the top seat in New Mexico.
Heinrich’s decision is high stakes. He is well positioned to become ranking member or chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as soon as 2026, a powerful dais to control in Congress, Monahan noted.
Colón said Heinrich could also face pressure from fellow Democrats to remain in his role on Capitol Hill, particularly during the next Trump administration.
“I think a lot of people look at him as a senior senator and say, ‘He’s doing great work in D.C., and we need his seniority and we need his leadership there,’” Colón said.
A left-of-center Democrat, Heinrich may also have to pivot to a more centrist political message to compete against Haaland’s progressive political background, said Monahan. That centrist stance may have fueled Heinrich’s recent decision not to endorse Stansbury, a progressive Democrat more aligned with Haaland’s political background, in her campaign to be ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee this Congress, Monahan said.
“Heinrich’s separation from Melanie told us a little where he’s going to have to go with this thing, which is to a more centrist segment of the party,” Monahan said.
Stansbury downplayed the media reporting on Heinrich’s lack of an endorsement for her and praised his fitness to lead on Senate energy issues. Stansbury was formerly a staffer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“There is no one more well qualified,” she said. “Heinrich is an engineer. He spent his entire life working on energy issues. He is a fighter for public lands. … Having a leadership team from New Mexico that includes all of our national leaders serving in key leadership roles is vital.”
New Mexico political observers note other Democratic primary contenders could emerge in addition to Heinrich, including current Lt. Gov. Howie Morales; Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver; or Sam Bregman, who serves as Bernalillo County’s district attorney.
Both Oliver and Morales are term-limited in their posts. New Mexico law allows officials to serve only two consecutive terms in any of its constitutional offices. Officials may seek the same office again after a four-year wait or compete for a different statewide office.
Oliver briefly campaigned in the 2020 Democratic Senate primary but ultimately lasted only a few months before dropping her bid to endorse Ben Ray Luján, who would go on to win the race.
A Haaland campaign would also face opposition from the political right.
Lujan Grisham has been New Mexico’s governor since 2019. But the state shifted to the right in the latest presidential election. President-elect Donald Trump lost the state by roughly 10 percentage points in 2020 but just 5 points in 2024, Sanchez noted.
“The right Republican candidate, if they emerge, could definitely be formidable,” Sanchez said, pointing to Martinez’s 2010 upset win to replace the two-term Democrat Gov. Bill Richardson.
Whether Haaland’s decision to enter the race could dissuade some of her would-be competitors remains to be seen.
“New Mexico politics are really personal,” Colón said, pointing to the state’s relatively small population of 2.1 million individuals. “We kind of all know each other. I think anybody getting into the field early, it’s going to have a ripple effect on what that field is going to look like come primary season.”
