Democrat Deb Haaland won New Mexico’s race for the open First District U.S. House seat.
Haaland told a crowd of her supporters at the Democratic party headquarters in Albuquerque she would pursue in Congress all the issues that she campaigned on—like fighting climate change, moving toward 100 percent renewable energy, and treating health care as a right, not a privilege.
“Now is the time to return to the most basic ideals of simply being good and kind people, ensuring dignity and freedom for all no matter what we look like, who we love, how we pray or where we were born,” Haaland said.
Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo and one of the first indigenous women to be elected to Congress.
Navajo supporter Alrayn Nelson says it’s about time. "In many cases it says we’ve as a county have come this far. As 2018, this should have happened, you know, decades ago," he said. "But it says a lot about New Mexico, and I am really happy that our state was one of the first in the country to elect a Native woman.”
Haaland won nearly 60 percent of the vote in her three-way race with Republican Janice Arnold Jones and Libertarian Lloyd Princeton.