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Edwin L. Mechem
United States Senator from New Mexico
In office November 30, 1962 – November 3, 1964
Preceded by	Dennis Chavez
Succeeded by	Joseph Montoya
15th Governor of New Mexico
In office January 1, 1951 – January 1, 1955
Preceded by	Thomas J. Mabry
Succeeded by	John F. Simms
17th Governor of New Mexico
In office January 1, 1957 – January 1, 1959
Preceded by	John F. Simms
Succeeded by	John Burroughs
19th Governor of New Mexico
In office January 1, 1961 – November 30, 1962
Preceded by	John Burroughs
Succeeded by	Tom Bolack
Born	July 2, 1912(1912-07-02) Alamogordo, New Mexico
Died	November 27, 2002 (aged 90) Albuquerque, New Mexico
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Ellen
Residence	Albuquerque
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Methodism

Edwin Leard Mechem (July 2, 1912 – November 27, 2002) was a prominent Republican politician from New Mexico. He served three times as Governor of New Mexico and represented the state in the United States Senate. Mechem was the first person born in the 20th century to become the state's governor, as well as the first person born in New Mexico after statehood to succeed to the office.

Born in Alamogordo, he attended Alamogordo and Las Cruces, NM schools. He attended New Mexico A & M (now New Mexico State University), 1930-31 and 1935. He worked as a land surveyor for the U.S. Reclamation Service in Las Cruces from 1932 to 1935. He transferred his college credits to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and graduated in 1939 in law. He was admitted to the New Mexico Bar the same year and practiced in Las Cruces and later Albuquerque. He was an FBI agent from 1942 to 1945 and a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, 1947-48. He was elected Governor in 1950 and 1952, did not run in 1954, and was elected again in 1956.

A member of the Committee on Government Security, 1956-57, and a member of the American Law Institute, he was again elected Governor in 1960. Mechem lost his bid for reelection on November 6, 1962. He appointed himself (as was his prerogative under the Seventeenth Amendment) to the U.S. Senate when long-time senator Dionisio "Dennis" Chavez died later that month. He served until November 1964 and resumed his law practice after an unsuccessful run for reelection. He was a member of the New Mexico Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch and a member of the New Mexico State Police Commission.

He voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1970 he was appointed by President Richard Nixon as Federal Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, serving from 1970 to 2002. He was related to another New Mexican Governor, Merritt C. Mechem who was his uncle. His father, Edwin Mechem, Sr. was a respected judge in Las Cruces.

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