Michelle Lujan Grisham

Michelle Lujan Grisham (born October 24, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as the 32nd governor of New Mexico.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in university studies from the University of New Mexico in 1981, where she was a work-study student in the engineering department and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

In 1982, she married Gregory Alan Grisham.

She also worked as a technical writing intern for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

In 1987, Lujan Grisham earned a Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Lujan Grisham served as director of the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department under Bruce King, Gary Johnson, and Bill Richardson.

During Richardson's tenure, the position was elevated to the state cabinet level.

Lujan Grisham served as the state secretary of health from 2004 to 2007 and as a Bernalillo County commissioner from 2010 to 2012.

In 2004, he named Lujan Grisham as New Mexico Secretary of Health and she served in the position until 2007.

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 Lujan Grisham ranked third with 24%.

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

Her father, Llewellyn Eugene "Buddy" Lujan, practiced dentistry into his eighties until he died in March 2011.

Her mother, Sonja Lee (née Jackson), was a homemaker originally from Indiana who died in 2022.

Her 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.

She is part of the prominent Lujan 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 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, defeating Janice Arnold-Jones.

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%.

A member of the Democratic Party, Lujan Grisham previously served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 2013 to 2019.

Lujan Grisham was sworn in as a member of Congress on January 3, 2013.

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

In 2016, Lujan Grisham was selected as the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

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

In 2016, she was one of nine members of Congress who took a trip to Baku who were 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.

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.

She won the Democratic nomination for governor of New Mexico in 2018 and defeated Republican Steve Pearce on November 6, 2018.

She was reelected in 2022.

Michelle Lynn Lujan was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico and grew up in Santa Fe.

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

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.

On November 8, 2022, Lujan Grisham was reelected to a second term, defeating Republican nominee Mark Ronchetti with 52% of the vote.

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.