Michelle Lujan Grisham

Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham (/ˈluːhɑːn ˈɡrɪʃəm/; born October 24, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 32nd governor of New Mexico. She 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 governor of New Mexico, as well as the first Democratic Latina elected state chief executive in the history of the United States.

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

Michelle Lujan was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and grew up in Santa Fe. Her father, Llewellyn "Buddy" Lujan, 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.

Lujan Grisham says that her ancestors have inhabited New Mexico for 12 generations (see Hispanos of New Mexico). She is part of a prominent contemporary political family in New Mexico, many of whose members have served in elected and appointed positions in government.

Lujan graduated from St. Michael's High School. She received a Bachelor of Science 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 Juris Doctor from the UNM School of Law.

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.

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

Elections

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%.

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. She defeated Janice Arnold-Jones, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, in the November general election, 59%–41%.

2014

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

2016

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

Tenure

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.

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

Lujan Grisham resigned her House seat as of December 31, 2018 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

Election

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. On June 5, 2018, she won the Democratic primary to become the party's nominee. On November 6, she was elected governor in a race against Republican U.S. Representative Steve Pearce. She won with 56.9% (385,684) of the vote, while Pearce received 43.1% (292,043).

Tenure

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

Abortion

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. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade barred states from regulating abortion in the first trimester; consequently, New Mexico's 1969 abortion law became unenforceable. 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'". Lujan Grisham published an op-ed in support of repeal on March 3, 2019. Repeal legislation passed the New Mexico House of Representatives; however, that legislation was defeated in the Democratic-led State Senate on March 14, 2019 by a vote of 24-18. 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'".

Environment

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. 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.

Guns

Lujan Grisham was a cosponsor of the 2015 Assault Weapon Ban H. R. 4269 Bill that was introduced on December 12, 2015.

Minimum wage

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

Lujan Grisham's husband, Gregory, died of a brain aneurysm in 2004. The couple had two daughters. Lujan Grisham filed a wrongful death suit against her husband's physician. The lawsuit was dropped.