About the Governor

Michelle Lujan Grisham is the thirty-second governor of the state of New Mexico, and the first Democratic Latina to be elected governor in U.S. history. She began her second term as governor in 2023. 

In her 2025 State of the State speech, Governor Lujan Grisham announced New Mexico had achieved the largest number of jobs in its history, adding more than 134,000 jobs in the previous four and a half years. Under her leadership, New Mexico achieved historic job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 20 years.  

The governor also expanded the Working Families Tax Credit, enacted the state Child Tax Credit and the first Gross Receipts Tax cut in 40 years, putting millions of dollars back in New Mexicans’ pockets. 

In the last two years, the state cut the employment gap in half, with wages rising faster than any other state. Major economic developments include securing Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum computing company, to establish a major research and development presence in New Mexico, positioning the state as a leader in the projected $3.5 trillion quantum technology industry. 

Governor Lujan Grisham is dedicated to safe reproductive healthcare access for all women, and abortion remains legal in New Mexico.  

Under her leadership, New Mexico’s poverty rate has dropped significantly. When accounting for investments in working families, the state’s poverty rate ranks 17th in the nation, better than the national average, representing historic progress in reducing child poverty. 

In 2023, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to provide Universal Healthy Meals, ensuring that every child in the state receives two healthy meals every school day for free. The governor has also dramatically boosted teacher salaries during her tenure and continues to prioritize improved quality of life for educators. 

The governor’s dedication to closing gaps in educational access and outcomes also extends to higher education in New Mexico, now the proud home of the nation’s most expansive free college program. Since its creation in 2019, the Opportunity Scholarship has helped more than 46,000 New Mexicans pursue higher education at colleges and universities around the state. 

A staunch advocate of environmental protection and sustainable development, Governor Lujan Grisham has successfully established policies and investments that enhance sustainability, combat climate change and strengthen the economy. In one of her first actions as governor, Lujan Grisham signed an executive order setting an ambitious statewide target of a 45% reduction in net emissions by 2030. In 2019, she signed the Energy Transition Act setting zero-carbon resources standards for investor-owned utilities by 2045 and rural electric cooperatives by 2050.  

New Mexico is now a national leader in reducing millions of pounds of harmful emissions from oil and gas extraction thanks to more stringent rules enacted by the governor. The Lujan Grisham administration adopted Clean Car Rules in 2021. She also established New Mexico’s first-ever climate investment center and in 2023 welcomed Singapore-based Maxeon Technologies to New Mexico, which is set to construct the first U.S. based solar-cell manufacturing facility. In 2023, she signed an executive order to achieve a zero-emission state vehicle fleet for New Mexico. In June 2025, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that XGS Energy and Meta have entered into an agreement to develop 150 megawatts of advanced geothermal energy in New Mexico. 

Governor Lujan Grisham currently serves as a member at-large of the National Governors Association executive committee. She was a founding member of the Reproductive Freedom Alliance and serves on the Alliance’s executive committee. She is also a member of the Western Governors’ Association, which she chaired in 2024-2025. As the WGA Chair, she led a bipartisan initiative to identify strategies for expanding access to housing in the West. She is a member and former co-chair of the United States Climate Alliance, and former co-chair of the Council of Governors Emergency Management and Disaster Response Work Group. In 2021, she served as co-chair for the Biden-Harris transition team. 

Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe before earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of New Mexico. A 12th-generation New Mexican, she is the mother of two adult children and grandmother of three.