Albuquerque, NM – Attorney and mom JoHanna Cox, 36, announced her candidacy for New Mexico Secretary of State. As a tireless advocate for the law, Cox is prepared to take her prosecutorial experience to the Secretary of State’s office to take politics out of the decision‐making process.
Running a clean, transparent, and fair election is not the job of a political organizer, but rather an attorney who understands the law and the role of the position in which she will be elected. Cox has decades of experience in being an advocate for fairness and transparency. In her work as a prosecutor in two of New Mexico’s busiest judicial districts, prosecuting public corruption, and defending hardworking law enforcement officers, Cox has been ethical and dedicated to serving New Mexicans.
“As one of the highest elected officers in New Mexico state government, the Secretary of State should not be playing partisan politics with every decision. The running of our elections is a sacred honor that should be conducted with respect of every voter in New Mexico. If I am elected, every voter in New Mexico will be able to trust the duties of the office are being conducted with the highest regard to the law.
“We cannot afford to allow our elections, the Constitutional check on our government, to be coerced by political decisions not based on the law, fairness, and equality for all.” – JoHanna Cox
Ms. Cox, born in Colorado, completed her undergraduate work at Colorado State University with a B.S. in finance and law school at the University of North Dakota. After law school, Ms. Cox moved to New Mexico.
Her first position was as an Assistant District Attorney in Valencia County where Ms. Cox was the Children’s Court Attorney and prosecuted white‐collar and computer crimes. She also instructed law enforcement officers on various aspects of search warrants, including their application to computer related situations.
Ms. Cox was also a Deputy District Attorney for the First Judicial District (Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Rio Arriba counties) in New Mexico. She was the founder and Director of the Public Integrity Unit (“Unit”). The Unit has been in existence since April 2009. The Unit resolved several public corruption cases including prosecution of the Jemez Mountain School District embezzler, a racketeering scheme involving police officers and financial officers for a municipality, a repeat tax evasion offender, perpetrators of fraud on a significant Santa Fe charitable organization funded by taxpayers, and individuals that fraudulently received public assistance from the State.
After leaving the District Attorney’s office, Ms. Cox has been fortunate to work in civil litigation firms based on Albuquerque where she continued her litigation development and community involvement.
Ms. Cox has served as the co‐chair to the New Mexico State Bar’s Technology Committee, President of the New Mexico InfraGard chapter, and served on the national board’s committees for InfraGard.