Deb
Haaland
Deb Haaland made history on November 3, 2026, when New Mexico voters elected her the first Native American woman governor in US history. A Laguna Pueblo member and former US Interior Secretary, she won with about 57% of the vote after a life that included single motherhood, money troubles and recovery from alcoholism. She takes office on January 1, 2027.
| Date of Birth | December 2, 1960 |
|---|---|
| Age | 65 years |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac Sign | Sagittarius |
| Occupation | Politician, New Mexico Governor-Elect |
| Party | Democratic |
| Tribe | Laguna Pueblo |
| Education | University of New Mexico (BA, JD) |
| Former Spouse | Skip Sayre (m. 2021, div. 2025) |
| Child | Somah Haaland |
| Known For | First Native American woman elected US governor |
| Book | A Voice Like Mine (2026) |
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Apostle Arome OsayiBiography
Debra Anne Haaland was born on December 2, 1960, in Winslow, Arizona, into a military family. Her father, John David “Dutch” Haaland, was a Norwegian American Marine who served for 30 years. He won the Silver Star for his actions at Con Thien in Vietnam in 1967, along with two Purple Hearts. He died in February 2005.
Her mother, Mary Toya, was a Navy veteran from Laguna and Jemez Pueblos. She spent 25 years in Indian education at the Interior Department, and she died in October 2021. Haaland calls herself a “35th generation New Mexican,” and her mother’s family has lived in the area for centuries.
Military life meant 13 public schools across the country, but summers stayed the same. She spent them with her grandparents at Mesita on Laguna Pueblo. “I remember carrying water from the community spigot and playing outside from sunrise to sunset, spending time in my grandfather’s cornfield, helping him irrigate,” she said in her election night speech. “I remember watching my grandma bake bread and cook beans and chile.”
Those same grandparents were sent to Indian boarding schools. “My grandmother was taken away to boarding school, and along with my grandfather, survived through a time where the federal government attempted to strip them of their languages, traditions and identities,” she told supporters. That history later shaped her biggest project at the Interior Department.
Haaland finished Highland High School in Albuquerque in 1978, and her first job was at Zinn’s Bakery. “Mr. and Mrs. Zinn taught me my work ethic,” she told The Santa Fe New Mexican in a 2026 interview. Her twenties were harder. She drank heavily and has two DUI convictions from that time, which she writes about in her memoir. She got sober around 1988, when she enrolled at the University of New Mexico. “I went to lots of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings,” she said at a book event in Washington in June 2026.
At UNM she took a class with the poet Joy Harjo, who later became US Poet Laureate. Haaland earned her English degree in 1994, at 34. Her child, Somah, was born four days after her graduation.
Money was tight for years. She ran a small salsa business, relied on student loans and moved often. During one Thanksgiving week she cried in a public assistance office because she could not get emergency food benefits. “I know what it’s like to have one dollar in your bank account and a hungry kid to feed,” she writes in her memoir. She entered law school in her forties and earned her law degree from UNM in 2006, at 46.
Career
Haaland started in politics as a campaign volunteer in New Mexico. She worked for San Felipe Pueblo as its tribal administrator and became the first woman on the Laguna Development Corporation board, which she later chaired. In 2014 she ran for lieutenant governor alongside Gary King and lost.
In April 2015 she was elected chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. She paid off seven years of party debt during her two-year term. Then she ran for Congress in 2018 and won the Democratic primary with about 41% of the vote.
She joined Congress on January 3, 2019. She and Sharice Davids of Kansas became the first two Native American women in the US House. In March 2019 she also became the first Native American woman to preside over a House debate.
Interior Secretary
President Joe Biden picked Haaland to lead the Interior Department, and the Senate confirmed her 51-40 on March 15, 2021. That made her the first Native American Cabinet secretary in US history. She ran a department with 70,000 employees and an $18 billion yearly budget.
The job carried a personal weight, because the same department once ran the boarding school system. She started a federal review of those schools in 2021 and left office with President Biden on January 20, 2025. “I wanted to make sure that every bureau and every office was important,” she told The Santa Fe New Mexican, naming the Bureau of Indian Affairs as one that had long felt left out.
2026 Governor Race
Haaland announced her run for governor in early 2025, just after leaving the Cabinet. The seat was open because Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham had reached her term limit. Her first big test came on June 2, 2026, when she beat Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman 72.3% to 27.7% in the Democratic primary. She won all 33 counties.
Her Republican opponent was Gregg Hull, a former three-term mayor of Rio Rancho. “I outwork every single one of my opponents,” she said in the fall. On one rural tour stop in Roy, 13 people came, and she brought pies she’d baked herself. Her running mate was Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, who joined the ticket after Maggie Toulouse Oliver withdrew for health reasons in June.
Her main promises were keeping universal childcare, better schools and reading coaches, lower prices, a path toward universal health care, and a pause on new large data centers. She told KOB her goal was a state where “folks can pay for rent and buy groceries in the same month.”
She raised more than $20 million, about ten times Hull’s total. Polls had her ahead by 6 or 7 points, but the result was far wider. The Associated Press called the race at about 8:40 p.m. New Mexico time, and the unofficial count gave her 412,834 votes (57.2%) to Hull’s 308,315 (42.8%). Hull conceded around 10:30 p.m. and said, “She ran a good campaign, and I wish her the best of luck because New Mexico is depending on it.”
Speaking at the Route 66 Casino Hotel on Laguna Pueblo land, Haaland told the crowd, “Here in New Mexico, we can do anything, and I know this because I’m living proof.” She also aimed at President Donald Trump, saying he had “enriched himself beyond comprehension” while “working his hardest to make New Mexicans sicker, poorer and hungrier.”
What Comes Next
Haaland will become New Mexico’s 33rd governor on January 1, 2027. “It is the honor of my lifetime,” she wrote on X after the win. The 60-day legislative session starts on January 19.
The morning after her win, she met reporters at Barelas Coffee House in Albuquerque and opened a website for job seekers who want to work in her administration. She has not yet named her cabinet. “We didn’t know we would win until last night, and I am not the type of person to put the cart before the horse,” she said. Her first promised act is an order pausing large data centers: “Day one, a moratorium for large-scale data centers, with the legislature passing a set of guardrails.”
“That wasn’t why I was running, though, of course,” she told PBS NewsHour about being first. “I have so much experience, having served at the highest level of government.”
Book
Haaland published her memoir, A Voice Like Mine, on June 9, 2026, through Henry Holt and Company, a week after winning the primary. She started writing down her memories in 2022. The book covers her childhood, her drinking, her years as a single parent and her time in Washington, and it includes family recipes.
Controversies and Disputes
The Epstein ads came first. In February 2026, a Bregman ad and an outside group’s ad tied her to the Jeffrey Epstein files. She had flown on a charter plane with Gary King during their 2014 campaign, and it was arranged through a charter company at Epstein’s request for King. The Santa Fe New Mexican called the ad misleading. Her spokesperson said, “She never met Epstein, never took money from him, and never rode on his jet.”
In April 2026 her campaign posted details of four Bregman family properties, including his 88-year-old mother’s home, and removed the post in under 24 hours. Bregman called it “doxing” and “an epic failure of judgment,” while her campaign said the records were freely available. He refused to endorse her after the primary.
Debates became a fight too. No general election debate took place, the first time in 20 years according to the Albuquerque Journal. Hull appeared alone at a KOB event on October 8. Her campaign said it had offered eight dates, while Hull’s side said she turned them down.
Her donors drew criticism in the final weeks. Filings showed more than $100,000 from Oracle and others tied to the Project Jupiter data center. When a voter told her to return the money, she refused, saying, “I believe I can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Mother Jones reported that her planned pause would not affect Project Jupiter, which was already under construction.
Republican groups also went after her time at Interior. In 2023, House Republicans asked about her then husband’s consulting work for Laguna Development Corporation and her child’s work with Pueblo Action Alliance, after she limited drilling leases around Chaco Canyon. No finding of wrongdoing has been made public.
Awards and Honors
Personal Life
She married marketing executive Skip Sayre on August 28, 2021, at Santa Ana Pueblo, and they divorced in February 2025, according to court records reported by the Albuquerque Journal. The filing cited incompatibility. “I will support her for governor,” Sayre told the paper. She was also briefly married in her twenties.
Her only child is Somah Haaland, an Indigenous organizer and performer whom she raised alone. “When I was raising my child Somah, I knew that education is essential,” she wrote on X in March 2025, recalling the days she taught at Somah’s preschool. Somah stood behind her on election night.
She is Catholic and loves to bake and run. She broke her left fibula while hiking in Shenandoah National Park on July 17, 2022.
Timeline
December 2, 1960: Born in Winslow, Arizona.
1978: Finished Highland High School in Albuquerque.
1988: Enrolled at the University of New Mexico and got sober.
1994: Earned her English degree. Somah was born four days later.
2005: Her father, Dutch Haaland, died.
2006: Earned her law degree from UNM.
2014: Lost the race for lieutenant governor on Gary King’s ticket.
April 2015: Elected chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
November 2018: Elected to Congress.
January 3, 2019: Sworn in as one of the first two Native American women in Congress.
March 15, 2021: Confirmed as Interior Secretary.
August 28, 2021: Married Skip Sayre.
October 2021: Her mother, Mary Toya, died.
July 17, 2022: Broke her left fibula in Shenandoah National Park.
January 20, 2025: Left the Interior Department.
Early 2025: Launched her campaign for governor.
February 2025: Divorced Skip Sayre.
June 2, 2026: Won the Democratic primary with 72.3%.
June 9, 2026: Published A Voice Like Mine.
November 3, 2026: Elected governor of New Mexico.
January 1, 2027: Takes office as New Mexico’s 33rd governor.
Net Worth
Deb Haaland’s net worth is estimated at $400,000–650,000. Most of it comes from her public salaries over the past decade, about $174,000 a year in Congress and about $221,000 as Interior Secretary. Her memoir adds income on top, and her law school debt takes a little away. She said in June 2026 that she still owes about $30,000.
She started from almost nothing. Her 2020 financial disclosure listed a $175 yearly tribal payment as her only asset, along with a student loan of up to $50,000. “I don’t have a savings account,” she told Today in 2019. As governor she will earn $169,714 a year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Deb Haaland?
Deb Haaland is New Mexico’s governor-elect and a former US Interior Secretary. She is the first Native American woman elected governor in US history.
How old is Deb Haaland?
Deb Haaland is 65 years old. She was born on December 2, 1960, and turns 66 a month before she takes office.
Does Deb Haaland have a husband?
No. She divorced her husband, Skip Sayre, in February 2025.
Who are Deb Haaland’s parents?
Her parents were John David “Dutch” Haaland, a decorated Marine, and Mary Toya, a Navy veteran from Laguna and Jemez Pueblos.
Where is Deb Haaland from?
She was born in Winslow, Arizona, and is an enrolled member of Laguna Pueblo. She has lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for most of her adult life.
When does Deb Haaland become governor?
She takes office on January 1, 2027.
