If anyone knows how to run a race, it’s Deb Haaland.
asserted
it → know → race
She descends from Pueblo runners who delivered secret messages to stage a victorious revolt against the Spaniards in 1680.
asserted
who → descend → 1680
As the first Native American cabinet secretary, she ran two distinct footraces—a marathon and ultramarathon—each bookending her historic appointment.
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she → run → appointment
If she wins, Haaland will make history again as the first Native American woman governor in the country.
asserted
Haaland → win → country
More profoundly, she would become the first Pueblo citizen to govern the modern state of New Mexico, the land of her Indigenous ancestors.
asserted
she → become → ancestors
At 65, Haaland has led a life defined by endurance.
asserted
Haaland → lead → endurance
Long before the world knew her as Biden’s secretary of the interior, she was a military kid and a struggling single mom relying on food stamps while accumulating so much college debt she’s still paying it off.
asserted
she → know → it
After failing the bar exam in her mid-forties, she found a different calling in politics.
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she → fail → politics
Now the late bloomer, known across Indian Country as “Auntie Deb,” has leveraged her national star power to amass a record-breaking war chest and a roughly 6-point lead over her Republican opponent, Gregg Hull.
asserted
bloomer → know → opponent
But beneath her family-driven TV ads lies a more complicated political picture: a progressive icon whose acceptance of contributions tied to a controversial AI data center and the fossil fuel industry has raised questions about the environmental commitments that helped propel her to national prominence.
asserted
that → drive → prominence
Reflecting on the historic possibility of becoming governor, Haaland spoke of her Pueblo grandparents who kept traditions alive despite federal efforts to erase them.
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who → reflect → them
“I never dreamed I would be running for anything, much less governor,” she told me in a brief interview the Friday before Election Day.
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she → dream → Day
“And I don’t think my grandparents thought about that either.”
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grandparents → think → that
Governing her ancestral homeland will demand something different: reconciling the state’s dependence on fossil fuels with its environmental future.
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homeland → govern → future
Haaland’s political prospects looked very different in 2018.
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prospects → look → 2018
Back then, she emerged as a progressive underdog riding a wave of Indigenous visibility after the anti-pipeline demonstrations at Standing Rock.
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she → emerge → Rock
She had driven to the camps, Instagramming #NoDAPL along the way, and cooked tortillas over an open fire to feed hungry Water Protectors.
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She → drive → Protectors
Back in New Mexico, as chair of the state Democratic Party, she led the withdrawal of party funds from Wells Fargo over the banks’ financial ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
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she → lead → Pipeline
White Albuquerque progressives and a groundswell of Native voters turned out to make her one of the first Native women elected to Congress.
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her → turn → Congress
Once in Washington, she championed the Green New Deal and later won re-election on a renewed pledge to reject fossil-fuel money.
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she → champion → money
But in a race to govern New Mexico, the country’s second-largest oil producer, Haaland has all but abandoned the language of “keep it in the ground.”
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Haaland → govern → ground
Since announcing her gubernatorial bid, she has collected tens of thousands of dollars from oil industry interests, including at least $24,800 directly from Energy Transfer LP.
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she → announce → LP
The Dallas-based company owns the Dakota Access Pipeline and helped bankroll the militarized response to the Indigenous-led resistance at Standing Rock.
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company → base → Rock
This week marks 10 years since police and National Guardsmen rolled armored vehicles across the North Dakota prairie to clear a protest camp in the pipeline’s path.
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police → mark → path
Almost 150 people were arrested that day, among them, Elder culture bearers.
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people → arrest → them
Energy Transfer also reportedly gave $250,000 to Affordable NM, an independent political action committee that has spent millions on ads attacking Gregg Hull.
uncertain
that → give → Hull
In September, campaign finance reports revealed that Haaland had accepted more than $100,000 in contributions from Oracle, its executives, and others connected to Project Jupiter.
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Haaland → reveal → Jupiter
The tech giant, alongside partner OpenAI, is driving the $165 billion megacampus.
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giant → drive → megacampus
The development is anticipated to release 10.1 million tons of annual carbon emissions, equal to putting 2 million more gas-powered cars on the road, while consuming millions of gallons of groundwater in the already water-stressed Chihuahua Desert.
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development → anticipate → Desert
Environmental concerns have fueled fierce opposition.
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concerns → fuel → opposition
A state Supreme Court stay temporarily froze the data center’s water permits in August, and other litigation against the project is ongoing.
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litigation → freeze → project
Protesters who had already mobilized over Project Jupiter’s lack of transparency instantly petitioned Haaland to return the money.
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who → mobilize → money
At a press conference, standing behind a podium bearing the words Agua es Vida—Water is Life—she promised a Day One moratorium on new data centers if elected.
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she → stand → centers
But the ban would not affect Oracle’s 1,400-acre hyperscale data center, where construction began earlier this year.
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construction → affect → center
Haaland declined to commit to returning the contributions, lamenting the cost of political campaigns.
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Haaland → decline → campaigns
“I believe I can walk and chew gum at the same time,” she said.
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she → believe → time
Tensions have lingered ever since.
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Tensions → linger → ?
In mid-October, days before early in-person voting began, Haaland walked out of her own community forum after being confronted again about the donations.
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Haaland → begin → donations
Among those most outspoken was 32-year-old Isaac Lira, who was born and raised in Sunland Park, five or so miles east from where Project Jupiter is being built
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who → bear → Jupiter
“Return the money,” he demanded, describing a childhood hauling drinking water because the local wells were unreliable.
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wells → return → water
…and 62 more, not listed.
The Aporia
