ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Deb Haaland will try to defend Democratic dominance in New Mexico in a race that could make her the first female Native American governor of any U.S. state as she faces off with Republican nominee Gregg Hull in November.
Haaland easily clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday, putting the citizen of Laguna Pueblo on a path to yet another potential first. She was one of the first two Native women elected to Congress and was the first Native American to hold a Cabinet secretary position in the U.S. government.
She celebrated her win at a historic plaza in Albuquerque’s Old Town neighborhood, where supporters gathered among a mariachi band and traditional Native hoop dancers. The event began with a prayer in Tiwa, one of many Native languages spoken among tribes in the state.
Both Haaland and Hull, the former three-term mayor of one of New Mexico’s largest cities, recognize the challenge in leading a state that is grappling with high rates of violent crime, chronically underperforming in schools and facing cuts to federal safety net programs.
“Our challenges today are not new, but we must come to the table with new solutions,” Haaland said. “Everything is getting more expensive. The state will step up to put more money back in your pockets.”
Hull said he knows families are struggling, but one-party control in New Mexico is not the answer. He vowed to give voters a “real choice.”
“This fall, we will face Deb Haaland in the general election, and we’re going to win,” Hull said. “And I respect that she has served in various positions over her career, but New Mexico families are hurting, and the policies of the last eight years under one-party control of this state have failed.”
The next governor will succeed Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, who reached her term limit. Democrats have won every statewide elected office since 2017.
Haaland’s campaign resonated with voters
On the campaign trail, Haaland focused on reducing costs for families while emphasizing her ancestral roots in the state, being a single mother, relying on government assistance and overcoming addiction. She also touted experience in the nation’s capital.
She made her first stop Tuesday at San Felipe Pueblo, a Native American community north of Albuquerque.
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.
Ann Chavez Barudin traveled 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Santo Domingo Pueblo to attend Haaland’s event Tuesday. She said she has followed Haaland’s ascent in national politics and supports her run for governor because of her promises to fill gaps left by Trump administration cuts to social safety net programs.
“I have confidence that she will stand up for Medicare,” said Chavez Barudin, who is a Medicare recipient herself and cares for her older mother who relies on the program.
Under President Joe Biden, Haaland championed public lands conservation and oversaw a first-of-its-kind federal investigation into the abuse of Native American children at government-run boarding schools. In 2018, she and Sharice Davids of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin made history as the first two Native women elected to Congress.
Haaland defeated Sam Bregman, an Albuquerque-based district attorney and the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, who campaigned on a promise to curb violent crime.
“This campaign may be over, but my commitment to the people of New Mexico is not,” he wrote in a statement to The Associated Press.
He 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 2014 unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor. 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.
Republican candidate faces an uphill battle
Hull was mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho and has pointed to his leadership there as a blueprint for how he would govern. He has promised to promote economic growth and attract large employers to New Mexico, where poverty rates are among the highest in the nation and wages among the lowest.
“We ran a campaign that focused on the issues, a campaign that focused on who we were and not a campaign that attacked or tore people down,” Hull told a crowd that gathered to watch the results roll in. “We did it right.”
He defeated public relations professional Doug Turner and former state Cabinet secretary Duke Rodriguez.
A.J. Rodriguez cast his ballot for Hull, the candidate he sees as most likely to defeat Haaland, and rein in violent crime and government spending.
“The state keeps voting blue and we’re getting hammered by policies that aren’t working. We need someone who can actually put up a good fight,” said Rodriguez, a retired sheriff’s office lieutenant.
Surging oil prices have translated into an influx of tax revenue
The next governor 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 heavy reliance on fossil fuel revenues to fund its programs has also created political difficulties for Democrats, as some of that income was tied to oil prices that spiked during the Iran war. 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 was open to the nearly 23% of voters who are registered as independent. Lujan Grisham signed the semi-open primary system into law last year.
