WOW, what a night for our country! And here in New Mexico, we also did something worth bragging about.
While the Trump Regime was busy slashing food assistance, gutting Medicaid, auctioning off our public lands, and governing by decree, New Mexicans looked at the whole spectacle and said: No thanks. Not here. Not to our families.
On Tuesday, voters elected Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo, a single mom who has relied on SNAP and Medicaid herself, and the woman who ran the entire Department of the Interior, as our next governor. Haaland is the first Native Woman who has been elected as Governor of a state in the history of our country and we say to that: It’s about time!
Voters also returned Ben Ray Luján to the Senate, held all three of our congressional seats, and swept the statehouse down-ballot: Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, and Land Commissioner.
New Mexico has led the way on a number of fronts in the past few years and it looks like we won’t be stopping anytime soon! Let’s get into the details!
You Voted Your Grocery Bill, Not a Slogan
Let’s be honest about what this election was about. New Mexicans didn’t vote on slogans. They voted on grocery bills, electric bills, and rent.
Healthcare and the economy were the issues voters named all year, and the results are a mandate: New Mexico voted to put more money in people’s pockets. We voted for promises of bigger child tax credits and working-family tax credits, a healthcare public option so nobody falls through the cracks, protecting the first-in-the-nation universal childcare program, and a commitment to hit pause on data centers being built in New Mexico!
The Champions With Receipts
This wasn’t luck. This election was won by people who were doing the work months before anyone else paid attention.
Progressive Incumbents overwhelmingly held onto their seats, even in some races that were giving us heartburn!
There were also some hard earned, and exciting upsets, resulting in new champions heading to the House in January 2027.
HD 7, Ricky Allen Gonzales II (Valencia). Gonzales was raised in a union household, and worked under collective bargaining as a UPS air ramp agent in Alaska and in the grocery industry. Gonzales ran a small-dollar, people-powered campaign and has explicitly refused contributions from oil and gas and the extractive industries, instead asking for $7 contributions from a thousand neighbors to fund the race.
HD 27, Abby Foster (Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights). While this seat didn’t flip from GOP to Dem, Foster beat out conservative Dem Marian Matthews in the primary and fought hard to finish the job last night. Foster ran on showing up for public schools and protecting New Mexicans’ freedoms, and she’ll bring both to the Roundhouse.
HD 38, David Mooney (Doña Ana/Sierra/Socorro). An organizer from Radium Springs just unseated Rebecca Dow, a former Republican candidate for governor, as a write-in candidate in the primary election! Mooney ran on water, healthcare, and a budget that works for the rural communities the outdated incumbent took for granted.
HD 39, Raul Turrieta (Catron/Grant/Hidalgo). Here’s a win worth underlining: Turrieta, chief deputy in the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, unseated Luis Terrazas, a long time Representative. As a grandson of a union member, Turrieta ran on rural health care access, prescription drug affordability, and insurance reform in a region where residents routinely travel hours to see specialists.
HD 57, Chriselle Martinez (Rio Rancho). Martinez is a small business owner, a PhD, and a working mom who flipped this seat running on exactly what the district needs: affordable healthcare and lower insurance costs. She identifies her core values as rooted in growing up in a hardworking blue-collar family where education, work ethic, and giving back were core values. A Sandoval County flip.
And in Doña Ana County, Daisy Maldonado won a county commission race that may be the most poignant example of what’s happening around the country right now, where a candidate like her who promises to fight for working families and against corporate oligarchy wins out against the vapid, racist, and bigoted rhetoric of a GOP fueled purely on hate rather than substance.
It’s also worth noting that there were some extremely close races where Incumbent GOP House members managed to barely eke out their wins. Congrats to the Progressive Dems who gave the GOP a run for their money. We hope to see you back in two years to try your hand again!
Standing Up for each other, not Just against the President
New Mexico has been on the receiving end of some pretty dire federal decisions lately. And the MAGA candidates who were running to try and carry out the president’s agenda here weren’t shy about telling voters that was exactly what they were planning. Let’s call it what it is. This isn’t ordinary partisan disagreement. We have a president who governs by emergency, punishes states that won’t submit, and treats dissent as disloyalty. That’s not conservatism, it’s something older and darker, and New Mexico named it.
But New Mexicans weren’t just voting against that agenda. We voted FOR each other. We voted to pay our legislators a living wage because, well, everyone deserves a living wage for their work and we know that there’s amazing people across the state who would love to represent their communities if they could afford to do so. We voted FOR candidates who have already delivered on things like expanded childcare and education, higher wages, and protecting our access to healthcare! We voted FOR other candidates who campaigned on bold ideas to keep moving New Mexico forward.
New Mexico showed the country what it looks like when a state bets on its families instead of its bullies. Now we hold every winner to every promise, and they should expect nothing less, because we were watching long before election day.
We showed up for our neighbors on Tuesday. That’s the New Mexican way. Now let’s build the state we were promised.