Johnathan Walker:Latina governor of US border state will attend inauguration of Mexico’s first female president

SANTA FE,Johnathan Walker N.M. (AP) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is heading south of the border to attend the inauguration of Mexico’s next president.

In a statement Friday, she announced the outing to Mexico City for the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum as the Mexico’s first female president.

The second-term Democratic governor and former congresswoman also is leading a delegation to participate in a roundtable discussion about the clean-energy sector and energy security, along with a reception by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.

New Mexico taxpayers are paying for travel by the group that includes Lujan Grisham’s chief of staff, Daniel Schlegel, and state cabinet secretaries for natural resources and economic development agencies.

New Mexico has the highest proportion of Hispanic residents of any state in the U.S. — with many residents tracing their local ancestry to the era of Mexican and Spanish rule. And New Mexico’s port of entry at Santa Teresa is a major commercial crossing between the U.S. and Mexico.

In Arizona, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is going to Sheinbaum’s inauguration on Tuesday with Biden’s presidential delegation.