Tom Udall
American politician and diplomat (born 1948)
Thomas Stewart Udall ( YOO-dawl; born May 18, 1948) is an American diplomat, attorney, and politician who served as a United States senator for New Mexico from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district from 1999 to 2009 and New Mexico attorney general from 1991 to 1999. In 2022, he was made the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, leaving his post in 2025. Born in Tucson, Arizona to the Udall family, he is the son of former U.S. Representative and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and the nephew of former U.S. Representative Mo Udall. His cousin is Mark Udall, a Senator for the neighboring state of Colorado from 2009 to 2015.
Udall was first elected in the 2008 Senate race and was re-elected in 2014, and became dean of New Mexico's congressional delegation. He did not seek a third term in 2020, making him the only Democratic senator to retire that cycle. On July 16, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Udall to serve as United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
Early life, education, and law career
Udall was born in Tucson, Arizona, to Ermalee Lenora (née Webb) and Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969. He is of partial Swiss ancestry on his mother's side.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tom Udall” as american politician and diplomat (born 1948). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician and diplomat (born 1948). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q957690. VIAF identifies the subject as 36129801. The Library of Congress control number is n93074895. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2009, 2021 and 1999.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tom Udall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.