Ben Ray Lujan (7 June 1972-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NM 3) from 3 January 2009 to 3 January 2021 (succeeding Tom Udall and preceding Teresa Leger Fernandez) and a US Senator from New Mexico from 3 January 2021 (succeeding Udall).
Biography[]
Ben Ray Lujan was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1972 to a family involved with Democratic Party politics in the state; his cousin was Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham. He worked as a blackjack dealer in Lake Tahoe and in northern New Mexico, and he later served as Deputy State Treasurer and the Director of Administrative Services and Chief Financial Officer for the New Mexico Cultural Affairs Department and on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. In 2008, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Democratic Party member. On 1 April 2019, he ran for the US Senate to fill Tom Udall's vacant seat. He was elected with 51.6% of the vote to his Republican challenger Mark Ronchetti's 45.7%.