Gina Ortiz Jones won a runoff election on June 7, 2025 and became the first gay mayor of San Antonio. She is also the first Asian-American female mayor of a major city in Texas, and the first female mayor in Texas to have served in a war.
Jones is a former Air Force officer, and Iraq War veteran, and served as Under Secretary of the Air Force during the Biden Administration. She defeated a hatemonger Rolando Pablos, an anti-gay advocate.
Deb Haaland, born December 2, 1960 in Winslow, Arizona, is the first Native American to be appointed to the US Cabinet. She assumed the office of Secretary of the Interior under President Biden in March 2021, after being confirmed by a vote of 51-40.
Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico, and later earned her Juris Doctor in Indian Law from UNM's School of Law. She ran for Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico in 2014 with Gary King, but lost the election.
She ran for the US House of Representatives for New Mexico in 2018 and won the election. Haaland was one of first two Native American women to be seated in Congress, with Sharice Davids, a representative from Kansas.
Haaland had the support of many Democrats in Congress for the position of Secretary of the Interior before Biden announced her nomination. She wore traditional Laguna Pueblo regalia for her swearing-in ceremony.
