Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) joins fellow House Democrats for a news conference. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

By Kelsey Tamborrino, Politico Morning Energy

More than 50 House Democratic lawmakers formally backed their colleague Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for Interior secretary in a letter to President-elect Joe Biden. Haaland, who is already being vetted for the position, would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary in the nation’s history.

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“You can make history by giving Native Americans a seat at the Cabinet table for the first time,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter, obtained by POLITICO on Thursday.

The letter, led by House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), was delivered to the Biden transition team this week, POLITICO’s Sarah Ferris and Theodoric Meyer report . ME readers will recall Grijalva also endorsed Haaland for the post this week in a letter to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Haaland is a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, a federally recognized tribe near Albuquerque, N.M., and she is one of only two Native American women ever elected to Congress.

Signing on: The letter was signed by progressives such as Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), as well as members of the moderate Blue Dog Caucus, such as Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Ed Case (D-Hawaii).

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