New Mexico – New Mexicans vote Tuesday to choose Democratic and Republican nominees for governor, with violent crime, weak school outcomes, and federal safety-net cuts pressing voters at the same time surging oil revenues reshape what the next governor can afford to do.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The parking lot at San Felipe Pueblo filled with cars in the early rush of Election Day, and Deb Haaland kept moving—waving a campaign sign, urging people to vote.
“Don’t just honk. vote!” she called out. turning the moment into a rolling reminder that the Democratic primary for governor was already underway for many voters. Haaland’s first stop north of Albuquerque carried the weight of a state trying to balance persistent problems with a rare sense of financial momentum.
New Mexicans are choosing Democratic and Republican nominees for governor Tuesday as the state grapples with high rates of violent crime. chronically underperforming schools. and cuts to federal programs that are key safety nets for residents. Yet the election is also landing after a surge in oil prices caused by the Iran war translated into an influx of tax revenue to state coffers.
New Mexico. the nation’s second-largest oil-producing state behind Texas. receives industry revenue that funds a range of progressive social programs. including universal childcare. With that money now swelling the state budget. the campaign has turned toward what should be done with it—and how quickly the gains should reach families who feel left behind.
For the first time, the primary is open to voters who are independent. Signed into law last year by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. the state’s semi-open primary system lets the roughly 23% of New Mexico voters who are not affiliated with a political party request either a Democratic or Republican ballot.
The governor’s race is the main attraction, though voters will also decide primaries in three congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat, and a long list of statewide offices.
Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo who also served a term in the U.S. House, is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Lujan Grisham, who reached her term limit. If elected governor, Haaland could become the first Native American woman elected governor in the U.S.
At San Felipe Pueblo, she was met with hugs by women from the community. Meredith Ansera, a project coordinator with the pueblo, said she worked with Haaland during her tenure as a tribal administrator who helped oversee education and childcare programs.
“She knows what our needs are and she’s been there,” Ansera said, adding that she cast her ballot early last week.
Haaland leads Sam Bregman in fundraising. and her campaign has highlighted Bregman’s wealth while casting him as out of touch with everyday New Mexicans. Haaland has declined several opportunities to debate Bregman. who has argued that his experience as a prosecutor puts him in the best position for Democrats in a state with high crime rates.
Bregman’s campaign, in turn, criticized Haaland after her name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files. It says she flew on a private jet chartered by one of Epstein’s companies during her 2014 unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor. That flight to a fundraising meeting in Washington. D.C. was paid for by Gary King. Haaland’s running mate at the time. King’s family had sold Epstein a ranch in New Mexico two decades earlier.
Haaland said she was unaware of Epstein’s role in arranging the flight and never met him.
Bregman, the prosecutor for Bernalillo County and the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, has promised to stand up to the Trump administration on issues including healthcare and immigration.
On the Republican side, three candidates are running in the primary: Gregg Hull, Duke Rodriguez, and Doug Turner. The winner of the GOP primary faces an uphill battle in a state that has trended left in recent years. Democrats have won every statewide elected office since 2017. and it’s been decades since a Republican presidential candidate won New Mexico.
Hull, who was mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho, has pointed to his leadership there as a blueprint for how he would govern. He has promised to attract large employers.
Rodriguez, former state Cabinet secretary under former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson and now a cannabis CEO, has focused on stabilizing the state’s healthcare system, which faces financial troubles and a severe shortage of physicians.
Turner, a public relations professional, has focused on plans to lift the state’s public education system from the bottom of national rankings.
Hull and Turner have not aligned their campaigns with the MAGA movement, while Rodriguez recently received a cease-and-desist letter from a law firm representing President Donald Trump. The letter alleged “deceptive use” of Trump’s image in campaign materials.
Whatever happens Tuesday. the winner in November’s general election will inherit the oil windfall that has already generated competing ideas on how best to use the state’s budget. Plans range from cutting one-time checks for taxpayers to funding tax credits that would mostly aid low-income residents to eliminating the state’s income tax.
At the center of the fight is a question New Mexico can’t avoid: how to turn fossil-fuel dependence into something more durable—without losing political control of what those revenues mean for everyday people.
Democrats, who are tightly connected to the progressive programs supported by the oil-funded budget, have found that reliance on fossil fuels has proved politically sensitive for their own agenda.
By the time voters stream in and cast ballots, the state’s contradictions are already on full display—crime and school failures pressing households now, while the oil money promising change can only stretch so far before campaigns are forced to explain exactly what it will buy.
New Mexico governor primary Deb Haaland Sam Bregman Michelle Lujan Grisham oil revenue violent crime schools universal childcare semi-open primary Laguna Pueblo San Felipe Pueblo