1. Early life, family, and education

2. Early political career

3. U.S. House of Representatives
    Elections  Tenure  Committee assignments  Caucuses 

4. Governor of New Mexico

5. Positions
     Abortion    Civil rights    Corporations    Education    Environment    Freedom of the press   Guns   Healthcare    Infrastructure    LGBT    Medical marijuana    Minimum wage    Poverty    Privacy of citizens    Voting rights  

6. Personal life

7. See also

8. References

9. External links

Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|uː|h|ɑː|n|_|ˈ|ɡ|r|ɪ|ʃ|ə|m}}; born October 24, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 32nd Governor of New Mexico. She previously represented New Mexico's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018. On November 6, 2018, she became the first Democratic woman elected as governor of New Mexico, as well as the first Democratic Latina elected state chief executive in the history of the United States.

Lujan Grisham previously served as Secretary of Health of New Mexico (2004–2007) and Bernalillo County Commissioner (2010–2012). She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2012 election, defeating Janice Arnold-Jones. In 2016, Lujan Grisham was selected as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.^[1] Lujan Grisham won the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Mexico in the 2018 election and defeated Republican Steve Pearce, on November 6, 2018.

Early life, family, and education

Lujan was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and grew up in Santa Fe. Her father, Llewellyn "Buddy" Lujan,^[2] practiced dentistry into his 80s until he died in March 2011. Her mother, Sonja, was a homemaker. Michelle's sister Kimberly was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of two and died at 21.^[3]

Lujan Grisham states that her ancestors have inhabited New Mexico for 12 generations.^[4] She hails from a prominent family in New Mexico.^[5][6] Her uncle is Manuel Lujan Jr., who served in the House of Representatives from New Mexico as a Republican, and as Secretary of the Interior during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. He was the named petitioner in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife. Her grandfather, Eugene Lujan, was Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.^[7] Her cousin, Ben Ray Luján, represents New Mexico's 3rd congressional district in the House of Representatives,^[8] while his father, Ben Luján, was Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Lujan graduated from St. Michael's High School. She received a BS from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1981, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. The following year she married Gregory Alan Grisham. In 1987, Lujan Grisham earned a JD from the UNM School of Law.^[9][10]

Early political career

Lujan Grisham served as Director of New Mexico's Agency on Aging under Governors Bruce King, Gary Johnson and Bill Richardson. Richardson elevated the position to the state cabinet. In 2004, he named Lujan Grisham as New Mexico Secretary of Health; she retained the office until 2007.^[10]

Lujan Grisham was later elected to the Bernalillo County Commission, serving from 2010 through 2012.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

She 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%.^[11][12][13]

2012

Lujan Grisham sought the Democratic nomination for the House again in 2012 after Martin Heinrich decided to run for the United States Senate. She won the nomination, defeating Marty Chavez and Eric Griego.^[14] She faced Janice Arnold-Jones, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, in the November general election.^[15] Lujan Grisham defeated Arnold-Jones,^[16] 59%–41%.^[17]

2014

Lujan Grisham defeated Republican Mike Frese in the 2014 elections, 59% to 41%.^[18]

2016

In 2016, Lujan Grisham defeated Republican Richard Priem, receiving 179,380 votes (65.1%) to Priem's 96,061 (34.9%).^[19]

Tenure

Lujan Grisham was sworn into a two-year term 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, and 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.^[20]

Lujan Grisham resigned her House seat as of December 31, 2018^[21] to assume the governorship of New Mexico the following day.

Committee assignments

• 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

Caucuses

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

Governor of New Mexico

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 is prohibited from running because of term limits.^[22] On June 5, 2018, she won the Democratic primary to become the party's nominee. On November 6, 2018 she was elected Governor of New Mexico in a race against Republican U.S. Representative Steve Pearce. She won with 56.9% (385,684) of the votes, while Pearce received 43.1% (292,043). She was sworn in on January 1, 2019.^[23]

Positions

Abortion

Lujan Grisham is pro-choice and supports access to safe, legal abortions.^[24] She successfully voted against an act that would have allowed states to deny Medicaid to any institution that offers abortions, even for non-related healthcare services (spending towards abortion is already prohibited by Medicaid).^[25]

Civil rights

Lujan Grisham has pledged to fight discrimination based on race, religion, creed, disability, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.^[26] She was one of the main advocates for the recognition that same-sex partners are legally able to make healthcare decisions for each other, and New Mexico became the first state to add that provision in state law.^[26]

Lujan Grisham has also been an advocate for elder rights and women's rights. She has been rated at 100% by the Alliance for Retired Americans due to her opposition to the privatization of Medicare or Social Security.^[27] She voted for and helped pass the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016, which changed employment procedures at the Department of Veterans Affairs.^[28] She voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2013.^[26] She co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would enforce against gender-based wage discrimination.^[26]

Corporations

Lujan Grisham believes political spending does not count as free speech and has supported a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.^[29]

Education

Lujan Grisham co-sponsored the Student Loan Fairness Act, which would forgive college loans after 10 years as long as 120 monthly payments had been made during that time.^[30]

Environment

Lujan Grisham supports the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.^[31] On 29 January, 2019, she 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.^[32] 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.^[33]

Freedom of the press

Lujan Grisham helped pass an amendment that prohibits the federal government from using taxpayer funds to force journalists to disclose their private sources.^[34]

Guns

Lujan Grisham was a cosponsor for the 2015 Assault Weapon Ban H. R. 4269 Bill that was introduced into House legislation in December 12, 2015.^[35]

Healthcare

Lujan Grisham opposes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. She co-sponsored the HOPE for Alzheimer's Act, which would make it easier for low-income people to get diagnosed for Alzheimer's.^[36] She opposes the privatization of Medicare or Social Security.^[27]

Infrastructure

Lujan Grisham voted for Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which provides for additional infrastructure spending on federal highways.^[37] She voted for the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, which extends current levels of Federal-aid highway funding.^[38]

LGBT

Lujan Grisham supports same sex-marriage and protection for LGBT minorities against discrimination in public schools ^[26]

Medical marijuana

In 2014, Lujan Grisham helped pass a resolution that prevented federal tax money from being used to interfere with medical marijuana programs that are legal in the state. ^[39]

Minimum wage

Lujan Grisham supports raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour. She co-sponsored a bill in 2013 that would have raised the minimum wage to $12 per hour and set it to rise based on the consumer price index after that.^[29] In 2015 she co-sponsored legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $12/hour.^[40]

Poverty

Lujan Grisham co-sponsored a bill that would maintain SNAP, a program that helps very low-income people purchase basic types of food.^[41]

Privacy of citizens

Lujan Grisham helped pass the USA Freedom Act in 2014, which amended federal policies with additional layers of protection for consumer privacy when it comes to phone taps, release of business records, and other private correspondence.^[42]

Voting rights

Lujan Grisham co-sponsored two bills, H.R.12 & S.1088, which would make it easier for citizens to vote. The bills would require that each state has a free, publicly available website where citizens can register to vote. It would also allow for automated voter registration and same-day voter registration.^[43]

Personal life

Lujan Grisham's husband, Gregory, died of a brain aneurysm in 2004. The couple had two daughters.^[44] Lujan Grisham filed a wrongful death suit against her husband's physician,^[45] which was dismissed.^[44]

See also

• List of Hispanic Americans in the United States Congress
• Women in the United States House of Representatives

References

External links

• [https://www.governor.state.nm.us/ official New Mexico Governor site]
• New Mexicans for Michelle gubernatorial campaign site
• {{Dmoz|Regional/North_America/United_States/New_Mexico/Government/Federal/US_House_of_Representatives/Michelle_Lujan_Grisham_%5BD-1%5D}}
• {{CongLinks | congbio=L000580 | votesmart=102404 | fec=C00501254 | congress=michelle-lujan-grisham/2146 }}

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