If confirmed, Haaland would be the first Native American cabinet secretary. That is long overdue given that the position oversees tribal lands.
There are more reasons to cheer her appointment:
A member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo people, Haaland brings a major outside voice to a Biden Cabinet so far dominated by former Obama officials. Before being elected to Congress in 2018, she started a small business, put herself through school with the help of student loans and food stamps and led the Democratic Party in New Mexico, helping flip the state house to Democratic control.
She supports the Green New Deal:
As head of the Interior Department, Haaland would also oversee aspects of oil and gas drilling sites on public lands. In her recent campaign for Congress, Haaland had said that it was time for New Mexico to rethink its reliance on the oil and gas industry, citing droughts in the Southwest, floods in the Southeast and burning wildfires in the West. She has said she supports a ban on fracking and the Green New Deal.
You may recall that in 2016, she went to the Standing Rock Sioux’s reservation to join tribal leaders' opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
The only downside is that Democrats are losing a House seat that is only Democratic-leaning. From The Albuquerque Journal:
Her appointment could also set off a wild scramble to fill her Democratic-leaning congressional seat, which represents most of Albuquerque in Congress. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would have to call a special election to fill the seat between 84 to 91 days of it being vacated, according to state law.
There would be no primary elections held before the special election, as political parties’ central committees would instead nominate their own candidates.
