New Mexico voters choose party nominees for governor as revenue soars from oil boom

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexicans will choose 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.

Despite New Mexico’s persistent challenges, the primary election comes at a time of promise for the next governor, who is all but likely to be a Democrat. Oil prices had surged globally from the Iran war, translating into an influx of tax revenue to state coffers. New Mexico is the nation’s second largest oil-producing state behind Texas, and the industry’s revenue funds an array of progressive social programs that include universal childcare.

For the first time, the primary will be open to voters who are independent. The state’s semi-open primary system, which was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year, allows the roughly 23% of New Mexico voters who are not affiliated with a political party to request either a Democratic or Republican ballot.

While voters will decide primaries in three congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices, the governor’s race is the main attraction.

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who also served a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Albuquerque-based district attorney Sam Bregman are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Lujan Grisham, who reached her term limit.

Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo, could become the first Native American woman elected governor in the U.S. Her campaign has focused on reducing costs for families, emphasizing her ancestral roots in the state and touting her experience working in the nation’s capital.

She leads Bregman in fundraising by a wide margin in a campaign that became increasingly contentious. Haaland’s campaign has highlighted Bregman’s personal wealth and cast him as out of touch with everyday New Mexicans. Haaland declined several opportunities to debate Bregman, who has argued his experience as a prosecutor puts him in the best position for Democrats to chart a new course in a state that has been bedeviled for years by high crime rates.

His campaign also criticized Haaland after her name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files. She flew on a private jet chartered by one of Epstein’s companies during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2014. That flight to a fundraising meeting in Washington, D.C., was paid for by Gary King, her 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 such as healthcare and immigration.

Three candidates are running in the Republican primary, with the winner facing an uphill battle to claim a state that increasingly 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 the state.

Gregg Hull was mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho and has pointed to his leadership there as a blueprint for how he would govern, promising to attract large employers to the state. Duke Rodriguez, former state Cabinet secretary under former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson turned cannabis CEO, has focused on stabilizing the state’s healthcare system, which faces financial troubles and a severe shortage of physicians. Public relations professional Doug Turner has focused on plans to lift the state’s public education system from the bottom of national rankings.

While Hull and Turner have not aligned their campaigns with the MAGA movement, Rodriguez was recently served a cease-and-desist letter from a law firm representing President Donald Trump for “deceptive use” of Trump’s image in campaign materials.

The winner of November’s general election will inherit the oil windfall in the state budget that has led to competing ideas on how best to use it — 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.

The state’s reliance on fossil fuels to fund its programs also has proved politically sensitive for Democrats.