“The first priority is going to be balancing the budget,” said Martinez.

KFOX-14 asked Martinez about the state’s DNA lab, which Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration moved from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

“It’s politics at its worst, and this is why: victim advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors, the attorney general’s office, even the defense bar support that the lab stay in Albuquerque, because Albuquerque processes DNA samples from individuals who have been arrested for violent crimes, not actual criminal acts that have taken place. And the lab in Santa Fe is actually testing samples that are part of the criminal investigation. We don’t want cross-contamination,” Martinez said.

She said any part of the lab that was moved will be transferred back to Albuquerque immediately. Martinez has long pushed for children’s rights and was one of the main proponents behind the Baby Brianna law, which increases the penalty in deadly child abuse cases. She said she now wants to improve the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department.

“Make sure we don’t keep kids lingering in foster care, that we investigate every allegation, and made fair assessments of those allegations of child abuse,” she said.

Even though most her time will now be spent in Santa Fe, Martinez doesn’t plan to leave southern New Mexico behind.

“I’m going to maintain my home here,” she said. “I have a special needs sister who will continue to live here with her caretaker, and also go back and forth to Santa Fe. My family is still in El Paso, my father, my brother, my cousins. It’s important to keep rooted where I came from.”

Although she’s already made history just by being elected, Martinez said it’s what lies ahead that matters.

“What’s going to lay the groundwork is if I deliver the results, if I deliver on the promises that I’ve been talking about for 15 months. So that at the end of the day, that’s going to be what’s going to define me, not the fact that I happen to be a woman, and that I happen to be Hispanic,” she said.