Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Ranking Member Martin Heinrich is New Mexico’s senior senator and has served on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee since joining the Senate in 2013. Heinrich is a strong advocate for working families, a staunch ally of Indian Country, and a champion for New Mexico’s public lands and growing clean energy economy. In addition to serving as Ranking Member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Heinrich also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Joint Economic Committee.
A former outfitter guide and outdoor educator, an avid sportsman, and a lifelong conservationist, Heinrich works to protect public lands, watersheds, and wildlife for future generations. With a background in mechanical engineering, Heinrich has also successfully passed energy legislation to lower costs for American families, improve America’s energy resilience, accelerate the availability of clean energy, and create clean energy jobs that Americans can build their families around in their home communities.
Throughout his career, Heinrich has worked alongside community-led efforts to secure new public lands designations and protections in New Mexico, from the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande Del Norte National Monuments to White Sands National Park and the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah and Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Areas. Heinrich also secured the resources tocomplete historic land acquisitions that opened up new public access to New Mexico’s Sabinoso Wilderness, acquire the Dawson Elk Valley Ranch in northeastern New Mexico, and secure the addition of the historic L Bar Ranch property to western New Mexico’s Marquez Wildlife Area— the greatest additions to protected public land in New Mexico in generations. Additionally, Heinrich played a leading role in securing strong, bipartisan support for the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act in 2019 and the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, two of the most significant pieces of conservation legislation to be signed into law in decades.
To advance our clean energy future, Heinrich has long worked to increase investments in widespread electrification of residential and commercial buildings, transportation, and industrial processes. Heinrich helped author and pass the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act, which have created a manufacturing renaissance throughout the country and established New Mexico at the center of the nation’s clean energy future. Heinrich has also led efforts to improve and expand the capacity of our nation’s transmission infrastructure, which is urgently needed for reliability, affordability, and clean electricity, and is leading forward-looking investments in fusion and geothermal energy, and the limitless clean energy opportunities they can deliver.
Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, Heinrich served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before he was elected to Congress, Heinrich served four years as an Albuquerque City Councilor and was elected as City Council President. During his time on City
Council, Heinrich championed successful efforts to make Albuquerque a leader in energy and water conservation. He also served as New Mexico’s Natural Resources Trustee, working to conserve the state’s outdoor heritage.
After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri, Heinrich and his wife, Julie, moved to Albuquerque where he began his career as a contractor working on directed energy technology at Phillips Laboratories, which is now Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base. Heinrich later served in AmeriCorps for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was the Executive Director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation.
In the mid-2000's, at the helm of the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness, Heinrich led the successful community campaign to establish the Ojito Wilderness. The Ojito became the first new protected wilderness area in New Mexico in decades and laid the foundation for future successful community-driven campaigns to protect and designate public lands throughout New Mexico.
