Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as United States ambassador to Mexico from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 50th United States secretary of the interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013 and as a United States senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009.
Salazar served as Attorney General of Colorado from 1999 to 2005. He became the first Latino senator representing Colorado in 2005. He and Mel Martínez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. senators since 1977; they were joined by Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) in 2006.
On December 17, 2008, President-elect Obama announced he would nominate Salazar as U.S. secretary of the interior. Reaction to his nomination from environmentalists was mixed. Previously, Salazar supported the nomination of Gale Norton to Secretary of the Interior, President George W. Bush's first appointee who preceded Salazar as Colorado attorney general. On January 20, 2009, Salazar was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate. On January 16, 2013, it was reported that Salazar planned to resign his post as Secretary of the Interior in March 2013, but his resignation was delayed pending Senate confirmation of his successor, Sally Jewell. On June 10, 2013, he became a partner in the major international law firm of WilmerHale, and was tasked with opening a Denver office for the firm. On August 16, 2016, Salazar was appointed to head presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's transition team.
In May 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Salazar as the United States ambassador to Mexico. His nomination was confirmed by a voice vote in the United States Senate on August 11, 2021.
Early life and education Ken Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado, the son of Emma Montoya and Enrique Salazar. His elder brother is former Congressman John Salazar. He grew up near Manassa, in the community of Los Rincones in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado. Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in La Jara, graduating in 1973. He later attended Colorado College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. Later Salazar was awarded honorary degrees (Doctor of Laws) from Colorado College (1993) and the University of Denver (1999). After graduating, Salazar started private law practice.
Salazar's Hispanic roots trace back to the Hispanos of New Mexico before New Mexico and Colorado were split up when they became part of Southwestern United States. He has identified as a Mexican American saying, "I've been taunted, called names—from 'dirty Mexican' to lots of other names—as I was growing up, and even now as a United States Senator." "...I became the first Mexican-American in the history of our country to ever be elected outside the state of New Mexico."
Career
Colorado cabinet In 1986, Salazar became Chief Legal Counsel to then Colorado governor Roy Romer. In 1990, Romer appointed him to his Cabinet as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
In this position, he authored the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment, which created a massive land conservation program of which he became chairman. Salazar also created the Youth in Natural Resources program, giving thousands of Colorado's youth an opportunity to work and learn about Colorado's natural resources in public schools. The Great Outdoors Colorado program's success was a model for President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative to create a 21st-century agenda for conservation and outdoor recreation.
In his cabinet role, he established reforms that forced mining and petroleum operations to better protect the surrounding environment and helped plan and promote Denver's South Platte River Valley redevelopment, transforming the area from an abandoned wasteland to a vibrant economic center.
Colorado attorney general In 1994, Salazar returned to private practice. In 1998, he was elected state attorney general; he was reelected to this position in 2002. Police operations were streamlined under Salazar, and several new branches of law enforcement were created: the Gang Prosecution Unit, the Environmental Crimes Unit, and the General Fugitive Prosecutive Unit, which targeted murderers. He also worked to strengthen consumer protection and anti-fraud laws, as well as to protect children through new policy designed to crack down on sex offenders.
As Colorado attorney general, he also led numerous investigations, including into the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Salazar was awarded the Conference of Western Attorneys General Profile in Courage award for his work.
During Salazar's tenure, his office pursued several environmental cleanup cases around the state. In a water contamination case involving the Summitville mine in Rio Grande County, Colorado, Salazar helped broker a joint settlement in which the federal and state government shared the $5 million settlement proceeds.
U.S. Senate In 2004, Salazar declared his candidacy for the United States Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Salazar considers himself a moderate and has at times taken positions that are in disagreement with the base of his party. He opposed gay adoption for a number of years, although by 2004 he had reversed his position. Salazar fell behind to candidate Mike Miles early in the state's caucus process. The national Democratic Party backed Salazar with contributions from the DSCC, and Salazar came back to defeat Miles in the Democratic primary, going on to defeat beer executive Pete Coors of the Coors Brewing Company and win the general election for the Senate seat. He assumed office on January 3, 2005.
Salazar was a leading member of a bipartisan group of senators that developed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and increased funding for border security, though the bill ultimately failed in the Senate. During negotiations, Salazar was quoted by The New York Times saying he wanted the new point system to be equitable: "We do not want to create a system that is just for the wealthiest and most educated immigrants."
On May 23, 2005, Salazar was among the Gang of 14 moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the filibuster against judicial appointments, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Salazar has skirmished with Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based conservative Christian group of national stature, over his stance on judicial nominees.
In 2005, Salazar voted against increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks, a vote that the League of Conservation Voters believes is anti-environment. In the same year, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies.
In August 2006, Ken Salazar supported fellow Democratic senator Joe Lieberman in his primary race against Ned Lamont in Connecticut. Lamont, running primarily as an anti-war candidate, won the primary. Salazar's continued support of Lieberman, who successfully ran as an independent against Lamont, has rankled the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party.
In 2006, Salazar voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast.
Salazar introduced legislation, co-sponsored by Colorado representatives John Salazar and Mark Udall to limit natural gas drilling on the environmentally-rich Roan Plateau in western Colorado. The bill increased the amount of acreage on the Plateau designated too environmentally sensitive to drill for gas.
Salazar worked in the Senate to give benefits to Rocky Flats workers who became ill after working at the former nuclear weapons plant in Colorado. The legislation would grant workers immediate access to medical coverage and compensation without the need to file individual health claims.
In 2007, Salazar was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote against a bill that would require the United States Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects.
Salazar received a 25 percent vote rating for 2007 by the Humane Society of the United States, a zero percent vote rating for 2005–2006 by Fund for Animals, a 60 percent vote rating for 2007 by Defenders of Wildlife, and a zero percent vote rating on the Animal Welfare Institute Compassion Index. He also supported the Bush administration's release of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for emergency haying in Colorado's Yuma and Phillips Counties. Salazar has an 81 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters, including a 100 percent rating for the year 2008.
Salazar resigned his Senate seat on January 20, 2009, upon his confirmation by the Senate to become Secretary of the Interior under President Barack Obama.
U.S. secretary of the interior
Salazar accepted Obama's offer to join his cabinet as the secretary of the interior. His appointment triggered a Saxbe fix by Congress. On January 7, 2009, Congress approved a bill, , and President George W. Bush signed it into law, providing such a fix by reducing the secretary of interior's salary to the level it was prior to the time Salazar took office in January 2009.
The Senate confirmed Salazar's nomination by voice vote on January 20, 2009, shortly after Obama was sworn in as president. As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar was in charge of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other federal agencies overseen by the Interior Department.
Salazar was one of two Hispanics serving in Obama's Cabinet, along with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis of California. Salazar is the second Hispanic interior secretary after Manuel Lujan, Jr., who held the post from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush.
As secretary of the department, Salazar began a large-scale effort within the department to ensure that the country's national parks and national monuments were inclusive of America's tribal and minority communities. Salazar worked to create new monuments to honor Cesar Chavez, the Buffalo Soldiers, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Fort Monroe and sacred Native American sites like Chimney Rock in Colorado.
Several prominent environmentalist groups were wary of Salazar, noting his strong ties with the coal and mining industries. Kieran Suckling, executive director of Center for Biological Diversity, which tracks endangered species and habitat issues stated, "He [Ken Salazar] is a right-of-center Democrat who often favors industry and big agriculture in battles over global warming, fuel efficiency and endangered species."
The nomination was praised, however, by Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters. Upon the nomination, Karpinski said, "Throughout his career, Senator Salazar has campaigned on a pledge of support for 'our land, our water, our people.' With a perfect 100% score on the 2008 LCV Scorecard, he has lived up to that pledge. As a westerner, Senator Salazar has hands on experience with land and water issues, and will restore the Department of the Interior's role as the steward of America's public resources. We look forward to working with him to protect the health of America's land, water, and people in the coming years."