New Mexico voters (mostly) ready to make history in governor’s race

By 5 p.m. in New Mexico, 672,450 registered voters had cast ballots — approximately 48% of the state’s 1.4 million voters had cast ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, which will next report voter turnout after the polls close.

In 2022, New Mexico had a 52.3% voter turnout in the November midterm.

Nearly 49% of the voter casting ballots so far are registered Democrats, followed by Republicans at 32.4% and unaffiliated voters at just under 18%.

Overall, Democrats make up 39.6% of the state’s voters, followed by Republicans at 30.4% and unaffiliated or Decline to State voters at 28.1%.

New Mexico’s high Democratic turnout echoed the national trend of record turnout and expectations that Democrats might win back control of Congress and curtail the Trump administration’s policy agendas.

Across the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho areas Tuesday morning, voters said they were backing the candidates and ballot measures they believed would push back against the Trump administration’s policies.

Voters in the area overwhelmingly told Source NM they hoped their votes would counter federal efforts to implement cuts to services such as Medicaid and SNAP. 

As news regarding the federal government’s efforts to monitor polling places nationwide spread ahead of Election Day and as immigration advocates prepared for the possibility of federal interference, Albuquerque resident Jessica Queen said she felt like voting in Albuquerque was a calm spot in an otherwise turbulent national political landscape.

“I’m grateful to be in blue New Mexico,” she said.

Further north, at the Sandoval County Administration Building, Rio Rancho residents told Source NM they were similarly excited to vote for Haaland.

Philip Dodge, a 73-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, said he voted for “anything non-Republican.” He took exception with federal cuts to programs such as Medicaid, which he said his son depends on. And he said he was outraged at the way U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is “disrespecting the military.”

When asked if he voted for Hull, who was the longest-serving mayor in Rio Rancho’s history, Dodge shook his head to say “no.”

“I see the way the roads are around here,” he said.

Regardless of political parties, every Albuquerque and Rio Rancho voter who spoke with Source NM after leaving the polls Tuesday said they voted in favor of Constitutional Amendment 4, which would let state lawmakers collect an annual salary for their work for the first time.

Juan Velasquez, an Albuquerque Republican who said he voted “MAGA all the way” Tuesday, said he backed the proposal to pay lawmakers.

He said he voted for Republicans all down the ballot because he believes their policies are better for the economy, particularly in a state like New Mexico that routinely ranks among the poorest in the nation.

To him, paying lawmakers is another way to address that problem.

“This is a poor state to begin with, then you go into politics and you’re still poor,” he said. “I think they should all get paid. Why shouldn’t they?”

Nearly every voter Source NM spoke with in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho also said they wanted to see Deb Haaland, the former U.S. Interior Secretary running as New Mexico’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, make history Tuesday evening by becoming the nation’s first woman Native American governor.

“I’m pulling for Auntie Deb,” Albuquerque resident Queen said after casting her ballot at the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.

Haaland starts day on Santo Domingo Pueblo

Haaland, an enrolled Laguna Pueblo member, began Election Day on Tuesday morning visiting the Santo Domingo Pueblo, which has around 2,300 enrolled members and sits between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

The Pueblo is one of four that has endorsed her campaign for governor and also endorsed her for her first congressional campaign in 2017, when she became one of the first Native Americans elected to the U.S. House.

Haaland, who also made history as the first Indigenous cabinet secretary under President Joe Biden, told Source NM she hadn’t dwelled too much on the historic nature of her candidacy before Election Day, but she did say representation matters in politics. 

“It mattered when I became one of the first Native women in Congress. It mattered when President Biden nominated me, and it’ll matter here,” she said. “Lots of Native people all across the country [are] running. So, I feel grateful that, perhaps in some small way, I might have inspired them to believe that they could run for office, too.”

Source NM spoke to 10 voters outside the Pueblo’s community center, all of whom said they had voted for Haaland. Most of them said Haaland being Indigenous at least partially influenced their decision to vote for her, though others said her success as a former Interior Department Secretary and their former congressional representative heavily factored in, as well. 

“She’s a strong lady, and we can always depend on her,” said Sammy Garcia, a tribal council member. “We’re proud of her, what she has done for us, and now we’re depending on Deb Haaland to see if we can help our tribe.”

Eliana Bailon, a 22-year-old Santo Domingo Pueblo member, said she hopes Haaland’s candidacy counteracts stereotypes on tribal land and shows that women can be strong leaders in what are often “patriarchal” societies.

“Her being a woman, it gives us women more power,” she said. “As you may know, most pueblos don’t really have women leaders, so I think it’s really important that she could be at a higher position.”

Bailon arrived at the polls Tuesday afternoon with her partner, Derek Masawiestewa, a 23-year-old, Santa Ana Pueblo member who had never voted before. She urged him to cast a ballot, including for Haaland.

“She was like, it’s very important,” Masawiestewa told Source NM. So he put in an application Tuesday for same-day registration. “I’m just hoping I can make a difference.”

Governor’s race, Trump policies resonate at Santa Fe, Española polls

The governor’s race between Democrat Haaland and Republican Hull also dominated discussion at various polling spots in Santa Fe.

For Aramea Atencio and Mark Rodriguez, a couple who voted at Carlos Gilbert Elementary, the prospect of electing the first Native American woman governor brought them out to vote. 

“That was my main motive — to support women, support indigenous peoples,” Atencio said. “This is their land and everything else follows after that.”

Arthur Montoya, voting at the Rodeo de Santa Fe Fairgrounds, also prioritized the governor’s race and said he was casting a ballot for Hull. 

He told Source NM that the most important issue for him this election was voting for candidates that “show up for every New Mexican” and are not “influenced by outside forces.” 

He added that federal policies set by the Trump administration did not affect his ballot, saying that he’s focused on New Mexico and that he’s “not really concerned about Washington. It’s about us.”

The opposite held true for Steve Montoya, a Navy veteran who voted down the ballot for Democrats at the Dan Roybal Community Center in Española. When asked what the top issue was for him when he cast his ballot, he told Source NM, “The Republicans got everything so screwed up right now that we need to get back on track.” 

He added that the Trump administration’s foreign policy in particular was a cause of concern because “what they have done to our reputation around the world. That is the biggest thing.”

On the eve of the U.S. elections, the Trump administration again launched military strikes against Iran after starting the war in February. Since then, gas and oil prices have increased, which U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández told Source NM motivated the high voter turnout this midterm election. 

“I think the key issues that New Mexicans are voting on is they are tired of the division. They’re tired of the corruption. They’re tired of the cost,” Leger Fernández said outside the Rodeo de Santa Fe Fairgrounds. When asked about concerns about possible election interference, she added that when voters show up in “overwhelming force,” then “Trump and Republicans who want to overturn our elections, who want to suppress our vote, they have a very hard time doing it. We’re not going to let them do it.”

Rodriguez echoed the sentiment after voting at Carlos Gilbert Elementary in Santa Fe, telling Source NM he cast his vote today to be “a thorn in [Trump’s] side, trying to vote against him at all costs.” 

Ready for change in Las Cruces

Polling locations also were busy in Las Cruces the morning of Election Day, with several voters telling Source NM that they voted Democrat down the ballot because they were tired of Republican corruption, particularly at the federal level.

“The past few years of every time I opened my phone it’s just, from the top down from our government, it’s just pedophilia, and racism and fascism and it’s a lot of doom scrolling everywhere you go,” Las Crucen Matthew Thomas told Source NM. “So I thought I needed to do something to combat that.”

He added that he voted against state constitutional amendment 4 that proposed paying state legislators because he feels that lawmakers already receive money from outside sources. “I thought, why do they need our money when they’re already getting paid under the table from who knows how many sources,” Thomas said.

Jim Libbin told Source that he also voted against the constitutional amendment this time because he would like to see legislators convene in Santa Fe more often. 

“It just seems like a pretty good salary for a 30-day session every other year,” Libbin said. “I know they work all year long, but if they’re going to increase salaries then it seems to me they ought to have a longer session and do their work there.”

Libbin, however, said he voted Republican on the “major issues” on the ballot this election because he believes it is time for change in Democratic-led state, in which the majority party has control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office. 

“We’ve been dominated by the Democratic Party for so long and we end up at the bottom of the heap in everything,” he said.

Mesilla Park resident and educator Roberta Madrid told Source that while she has voted for candidates on both sides of the aisle in the past, she supported Democratic candidates Tuesday because the Republican Party is “kind of cuckoo right now and we can’t let our country die.”

Madrid previously lived in Arizona for 20 years, a Republican-leaning state, and believes they’ve passed policies harmful to public education. “New Mexico has its issues, but they truly support public education,” Madrid said. She added that New Mexico’s gubernatorial race was particularly important to her and she voted for Deb Haaland, hoping to see a Native American woman elected to the office.

Manuel Jimenez, a third-year New Mexico State University student studying secondary education, told Source that Tuesday was his first time voting in an election. Immigrant rights were what motivated him to cast his ballot. 

He said he hasn’t seen his mother and other family for a long time because they live in Mexico and fear their visas will be taken away if they try crossing into the U.S. from Ciudad Juárez.

“Seperation is a big problem, not only for me, but I’m sure for a lot more people that come from Mexico and other places around the world,” Jimenez said, adding that he wants to see policies past that would help immigrants feel safer across the entire country.

“I just thought it would be important to vote right now, knowing that I can do it and have an impact in the smallest way,” he said. “Knowing that my vote also will help not only me, but a lot more people, one way or another.”