Ken Salazar

The Great Outdoors Colorado program's success was a model for President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative to create a 21st-century agenda for conservation and outdoor recreation.

In his cabinet role, he established reforms that forced mining and petroleum operations to better protect the surrounding environment and helped plan and promote Denver's South Platte River Valley redevelopment, transforming the area from an abandoned wasteland to a vibrant economic center.

Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico.

Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in La Jara, graduating in 1973.

He and Mel Martínez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. senators since 1977; they were joined by Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) in 2006.

He later attended Colorado College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

In 1986, Salazar became Chief Legal Counsel to then Colorado Governor Roy Romer.

In 1990, Romer appointed him to his Cabinet as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

In this position, he authored the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment, which created a massive land conservation program of which he became chairman.

Salazar also created the Youth in Natural Resources program, giving thousands of Colorado's youth an opportunity to work and learn about Colorado's natural resources in public schools.

Later Salazar was awarded honorary degrees (Doctor of Laws) from Colorado College (1993) and the University of Denver (1999).

After graduating, Salazar started private law practice.

Salazar's Hispanic roots trace back to the Hispanos of the Southwestern United States.

He has been identified as a Mexican American saying, "I've been taunted, called names—from 'dirty Mexican' to lots of other names—as I was growing up, and even now as a United States Senator."

In 1994, Salazar returned to private practice.

In 1998, he was elected state attorney general; he was reelected to this position in 2002.

Police operations were streamlined under Salazar, and several new branches of law enforcement were created: the Gang Prosecution Unit, the Environmental Crimes Unit, and the General Fugitive Prosecutive Unit, which targeted murderers.

He also worked to strengthen consumer protection and anti-fraud laws, as well as to protect children through new policy designed to crack down on sex offenders.

Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served as Attorney General of Colorado from 1999 to 2005.

As Colorado Attorney General, he also led numerous investigations, including into the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Salazar was awarded the Conference of Western Attorneys General Profile in Courage award for his work.

During Salazar's tenure, his office pursued several environmental cleanup cases around the state.

In a water contamination case involving the Summitville mine in Rio Grande County, Colorado, Salazar helped broker a joint settlement in which the federal and state government shared the $5 million settlement proceeds.

In 2004, Salazar declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Salazar considers himself a moderate and has at times taken positions that are in disagreement with the base of his party.

He opposed gay adoption for a number of years, although by 2004 he had reversed his position.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009.

On December 17, 2008, President-elect Obama announced he would nominate Salazar as U.S. secretary of the interior.

The environmentalist movement's reaction to this nomination was mixed.

Previously, Salazar supported the nomination of Gale Norton to Secretary of the Interior, President George W. Bush's first appointee who preceded Salazar as Colorado Attorney General.

He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013.

On January 20, 2009, Salazar was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate.

On January 16, 2013, it was reported that Salazar planned to resign his post as Secretary of the Interior in March 2013, but his resignation was delayed pending Senate confirmation of his successor, Sally Jewell.

On June 10, 2013, he became a partner in the major international law firm of WilmerHale, and was tasked with opening a Denver office for the firm.

On August 16, 2016, Salazar was appointed to head presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's transition team.

In May 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Salazar as the United States ambassador to Mexico.

His nomination was confirmed by a voice vote in the United States Senate on August 11, 2021.

Ken Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado, the son of Emma Montoya and Enrique Salazar.

His elder brother is former Congressman John Salazar.

He grew up near Manassa, in the community of Los Rincones in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado.