Richardson, Bill (1947-2023), a prominent Hispanic American political leader, served as governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. Richardson, a Democrat, also served as a United States congressman, and as U.S. secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton. He was the first Hispanic American to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the first Hispanic American to campaign for president.
William Blaine Richardson was born in Pasadena, California, on Nov. 15, 1947. His mother was Mexican, and his father was a non-Hispanic banker from Boston who worked in Mexico. The family lived in Mexico City from the time Bill was 1 until he was 13. They moved to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1961.
Richardson earned a B.A. degree from Tufts University in 1970 and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts in 1971. He moved to New Mexico in 1978. In 1982, he was elected there to the U.S. House of Representatives. He took office in 1983 and served in the House until 1997. After Bill Clinton became president in 1993, he sent Congressman Richardson on several diplomatic missions. Richardson’s diplomatic achievements included negotiating the release of Americans held hostage in North Korea, Iraq, and Sudan. Richardson served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from January 1997 until Clinton appointed him energy secretary. Richardson held that Cabinet post from 1998 to 2001.
After leaving the Cabinet, Richardson campaigned for the office of governor of New Mexico. He was elected in November 2002 and took office in 2003. Richardson wrote an autobiography, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life (2005). He was reelected governor in 2006. Beginning in 2007, Richardson campaigned for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president. However, he dropped out of the race in January 2008 after faring poorly in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Richardson later co-wrote, with author Kevin Bleyer, the book How to Sweet-Talk a Shark: Strategies and Stories from a Master Negotiator (2013). Richardson died on Sept. 1, 2023.
