The Economist Runs Feature on Governor Martinez

Susana Martinez

The Economist - TORIBIO ORTEGA, who supposedly fired the first shot in the Mexican Revolution a century ago, would have been surprised if told that a descendant of his would one day run an American state. So would Adolfo Martinez, another Mexican revolutionary, who crossed the sparsely patrolled border into America in the 1920s (whether legally or not is unclear from census records). But today Susana Martinez of New Mexico, great-granddaughter of the former and granddaughter of the latter, does just that: she is America’s first Latina governor. Her Democratic predecessor, Bill Richardson, is of Mexican descent on his mother’s side. And Brian Sandoval in Nevada is both Latino and Republican.

Martinez at Inauguration

But Ms Martinez is the only governor who is simultaneously Hispanic, female and Republican. As such, she seems well on the way to embodying the party’s hoped-for future as a conservative movement that can appeal to, rather than repel, Latinos, America’s fastest-growing main ethnic group. This is why many Republican strategists are now studying her. New Mexico, which has the highest share (almost half) of Latinos of any state in the country, is, along with Colorado and Nevada, an important swing state for 2012. John McCain, the Republican candidate last time and a senator from Arizona, thinks that Latinos are up for grabs in these states and even in his own, if Republicans will just change their nativist tone. Read full story here: News New Mexico

The Economist Runs Feature on Governor Martinez