When was Jerry Apodaca governor New Mexico?

Jerry Apodaca served as governor for the state from 1975 to 1979.

Apodaca made history when he was sworn in, becoming the first Hispanic governor in the history of the United States.

In 1965, he was elected to the New Mexico Senate, in which he served for four two-year terms from 1966 to 1974.

Apodaca was elected governor of New Mexico as a Democrat in 1974, becoming the first Hispanic governor in the U.S. since 1918, along with neighboring Arizona Governor Raúl Héctor Castro, who was also elected that year.

Apodaca narrowly defeated his Republican opponent, Joe Skeen, later a long-term member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico.

At the campaign, Jimmy Carter, the outgoing governor of Georgia and future President of the United States, came to New Mexico to campaign for Apodaca.

In 1978, President Carter appointed Apodaca, who was constitutionally ineligible to seek reelection as governor, as the chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness.

After his term as governor, Apodaca became involved in publishing Hispanic-audience periodicals.