Former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson speaks to reporters after a news conference in New York in 2021. Seth Wenig/AP
Seth Wenig/AP
Bill Richardson, a former Democratic governor of New Mexico who went on to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died. He was 75.
Richardson died in his sleep at his summer home in Chatham, Mass., the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a nonprofit foundation started by the former governor, confirmed on Saturday.
Before he was elected as governor in 2002, and later ran an unsuccessful bid as the first Latino U.S. presidential nominee, Richardson served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico. Under President Bill Clinton, he served as U.N. ambassador and energy secretary.
After his career in government, he cemented his legacy as an unofficial diplomat through his volunteer work in securing the release of Americans detained overseas.
“He lived his entire life in the service of others,” Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson Center, said in a statement. “The world has