Congresswoman Grisham running for governor
Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, on Dec. 13 became the first candidate of either party to announce she’s running for governor.
Grisham announced with a video on her website.
Grisham said she wants to fix persistent New Mexico problems such as high unemployment, poverty, high rates of drug addiction “and too many seniors and families who are afraid for their safety and feel left behind by the failed policies of the last six years.”
Grisham, 57, was born in Los Alamos. She graduated from Saint Michael’s High School in 1977 and from The University of New Mexico in 1981. She later earned a law degree from UNM in 1987.
She served as director of New Mexico’s Agency on Aging under Gov. Bruce King, Gary Johnson, and Bill Richardson. Johnson was a Republican.
During Richardson’s first term the agency became a cabinet department called the Department of Aging and Long-term Care. In 2004, Richardson named Grisham secretary of the state Health Department.
She resigned as health secretary to make her first run for Congress in 2008. Grisham lost to Martin Heinrich in the First Congressional District primary.
She was elected to the Bernalillo County Commission in 2010. And in 2012 she ran for Congress again, this time successfully. She was re-elected in 2014 and this year.
The Santa Fe New Mexican is a sister-paper of The Taos News.
