This marks the first time a Native American is running for lieutenant governor in New Mexico. Haaland explained that Native Americans from tribal communities were not allowed to vote in New Mexico until 1948, which "put us a little bit behind the eight-ball."

After working to get out the vote for Democrats for the past 10 years, she wanted to find a way to encourage and inspire more people to exercise their right to vote, and decided to run for office. She explained that last summer she had become "disheartened" with the state's leadership but felt the Democratic state senator and representative from her district were doing excellent jobs, and she didn't want to rock the boat.

Haaland decided in November, after close consultation with party leaders and close friends, to run for statewide office, and in December had her rollout. She ran unopposed in the state primary elections in early June. Two other candidates filed to run against her but ended up not meeting all the requirements. The state constitution has a provision that asserts that same-party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must run on the same ticket.

"In a simplistic way, [Gary and I] want to help people," Haaland said. "There's a stark difference between our campaign and the Susana Martinez campaign. Number one, we care a great deal about the education system. They're willing to keep going down the same path they've been going down for the past three and a half years, which includes excessive testing for students. It's unfair. It's not a good system at all. We will not perpetuate something that is so damaging to our school system."