Governor Martinez took office when New Mexico was facing the largest budget deficit in state history, rampant corruption, chronically underperforming schools and an economy overly dependent on federal funding at a time when the federal government massively cut spending.

She confronted these issues head-on, turning the largest budget deficit in state history into a record-breaking surplus (without raising taxes), restoring confidence in state government, enacting bold education reforms that resulted in the highest graduation rates in state history and unprecedented improvement in student test scores, and fundamentally changing and diversifying the state’s economy by growing the private sector, leading to the unemployment rate dropping from 7.8% to 4.6% when she left office and the largest job growth in 12 years.

Susana Martinez never backed down from the serious challenges she faced as Governor. In confronting these challenges, she kept the promises she made to voters when she first ran for office. And New Mexico is better today because of it.