Michelle Lujan Grisham

2008

Lujan Grisham resigned as Secretary of Health in order to run for the United States House of Representatives in the 2008 elections, losing in the Democratic primary to Martin Heinrich, who won with 44% of the vote. New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron ranked second with 25% and Michelle Lujan-Grisham ranked third with 24%.[12][13][14]

2012

Lujan Grisham sought the Democratic nomination for the House again in 2012 after Heinrich decided to run for the United States Senate. She won the nomination, defeating Marty Chavez and Eric Griego.[15] She defeated Janice Arnold-Jones, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, in the November general election,[16][17] 59%–41%.[18]

2014

Lujan Grisham defeated Republican Mike Frese in the 2014 elections, 59% to 41%.[19]

2016

In 2016, Lujan Grisham defeated Republican Richard Priem, receiving 179,380 votes (65.1%) to Priem's 96,061 (34.9%).[20]

Lujan Grisham was sworn in as a member of Congress on January 3, 2013. In 2016, she was one of nine members of Congress who took a trip to Baku that was later found to have been secretly funded by the government of Azerbaijan; she had to turn over gifts the country gave her to the House Clerk after an ethics investigation. Both the Office of Congressional Ethics and House Ethics Committee found lawmakers and aides had no way of knowing the trip was being funded improperly.[21]

Also in 2016, Lujan Grisham was selected as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.[22]

Lujan Grisham resigned her House seat as of December 31, 2018 to assume the governorship of New Mexico the following day.[23]

• Committee on Agriculture
  • United States House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition
  • United States House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research (Ranking Member)
• Committee on the Budget

• Congressional Hispanic Caucus (Chairwoman)
• Congressional Native American Caucus
• Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues

On December 13, 2016, one week after Tom Udall announced he would not run for governor of New Mexico, Lujan Grisham became the first person to announce her candidacy to succeed Susana Martinez, who was prohibited from running because of term limits.[24] On June 5, 2018, she won the Democratic primary to become the party's nominee. On November 6, she was elected governor, defeating the Republican nominee, U.S. Representative Steve Pearce, with 56.9% of the vote.[25]

Lujan Grisham was sworn in on January 1, 2019.[26] In September 2019, she announced a plan to make public universities in New Mexico tuition-free to state residents.[27]

On September 5, 2020, Lujan Grisham was named a co-chair of the Biden-Harris Transition Team, which is planning Joe Biden's presidential transition.[28][29] In November, Lujan Grisham was named a candidate for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden Administration.[30] On December 3, 2020, she was elected chair of the Democratic Governors Association for 2021, having served as vice chair in 2020.[31]

In 1969, the New Mexico Legislature passed a law that made it a felony for someone to provide a woman with an abortion unless it was needed to save a woman's life, or because her pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.[32] The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade barred states from regulating abortion in the first trimester;[33] consequently, New Mexico's 1969 abortion law became unenforceable.[34][35] In her 2019 State of the State address, Lujan Grisham stated her support for a repeal of the 1969 law; she said, "'The old criminal abortion law of this state, only one of nine left in the entire country, must go. Bring me that bill and I will sign it'".[36] Lujan Grisham published an op-ed in support of repeal on March 3, 2019.[37] Repeal legislation passed the New Mexico House of Representatives;[38] however, that legislation was defeated in the Democratic-led State Senate on March 14, 2019 by a vote of 24–18.[35] Following the Senate vote, Lujan Grisham said, "'This old, outdated statute criminalizing health care providers is an embarrassment. That removing it was even a debate, much less a difficult vote for some senators, is inexplicable to me'".[39]

On January 29, 2019, Lujan Grisham signed an executive order calling for New Mexico to join the United States Climate Alliance and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below 2005 levels by 2030.[40] This executive order also called for the state to develop comprehensive regulations to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, and for state agencies to work with the legislature to increase the state's renewable portfolio standard.[41]

In March 2019, Lujan Grisham signed New Mexico's Energy Transition Act. The legislation transitions the state's electricity sector away from coal and natural gas and toward a renewable economy, requiring New Mexico's electricity to be 50% renewable by 2030 and 100% from zero-carbon sources by 2045. She called the legislation "a promise to future generations of New Mexicans."[42]

Lujan Grisham was a co-sponsor of the 2015 Assault Weapon Ban H. R. 4269 Bill that was introduced on December 12, 2015.[43]

In 2015, Lujan Grisham co-sponsored legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $12/hour.[44]

Lujan Grisham is a strong supporter of Israel. She condemned the United Nations Security Council's criticism of Israel's settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.[45]