
Excerpt:
Martinez’s story is an impressive one. The 51-year-old former district attorney, from middle class roots in El Paso, graduated near the top of her high school class before attending the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. In 1996, Martinez was elected district attorney of the state’s 3rd Judicial District, which covers heavily-Democratic Doña Ana County. Touting herself as a no-nonsense prosecutor during the 2010 gubernatorial election, Martinez defeated the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, Diane Denish.
But the Republican’s rise to statewide office garnered little attention in the national spotlight overall.
The Associated Press made note of Martinez’s historic inauguration in a news wire Jan. 1, acknowledging her as the first female governor of the state, while omitting her Hispanic heritage. That story was picked up by several media outlets including the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune websites. FoxNews.com also ran the AP story that day, but Fox News Latino had covered Martinez’s candidacy and victory in a series of election articles beginning in October.
The AP later updated its Jan.1 inauguration day wire mentioning her as the first Latina governor. A search of the New York Times website yielded no stories on Martinez’s historic inauguration, and CNN mentioned her status as the nation’s “first Hispanic female governor” in a broadcast on Jan. 2.
And of course we have the only two Indian-American governors, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.