Trail Notes: One NM election cycle ends…another begins

And just like that, New Mexico’s primary election has come to a close, pending vote canvassing and a few recounts here and there (the State Board of Canvass is scheduled to meet on June 23 to certify the official results and order any automatic recounts).

Source NM spent Tuesday morning talking with voters around the state, and Tuesday evening waiting on results and attending victory parties for the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial winners Deb Haaland and Gregg Hull. We continued checking in on the winners in other statewide and legislative races well into Wednesday.

Contrary to Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s prediction, voter participation in Tuesday’s primary did not increase as a result of the state allowing independent voters to participate without changing their registrations.

Of the state’s 1.4 million registered voters, 24.6% cast ballots, according to unofficial results, a slight increase from the 2024 primary turnout of 22.8%, in which there was no gubernatorial primary, and a decline from the 2022 gubernatorial primary, when participation reached 25.4%. 

As for those independent voters, more than 37,000 of them cast ballots on Tuesday, or just under 10% of those registered as independent or “decline to state” voters. Source NM has a pending public records request to drill down into independents’ participation.

If you missed anything, catch up on our election coverage and Primary Election Voter Guide before we start down the Nov. 3 campaign trail.

Speaking of which, this will be the last Trail Notes until our general election reporting starts up in earnest. We will also be producing a brand-new Voter Guide for the Nov. 3 contests, constitutional amendments and bond questions. Stay tuned! — JG

Heinrich criticized for belated Haaland endorsement

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) routinely endorses Democratic candidates up and down the ballot every election cycle, including statewide offices like New Mexico attorney general and lieutenant governor, but also local races like the Las Cruces and Albuquerque school boards. 

But he did not endorse a candidate for governor in the primary between Deb Haaland and Sam Bregman. On Wednesday, he congratulated his chosen candidates — Maggie Toulouse Oliver for lieutenant governor, Amanda López Askin for secretary of state, Raúl Torrez for attorney general and Juan de Jesus Sanchez III for commissioner of public lands — in a social media post. 

The post conspicuously — to some — omitted gubernatorial winner Deb Haaland’s name from a post that concluded with, “looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and working to take our country back.”

That omission prompted Manny Crespín, Jr., who is the Democratic National Committee’s committeeman for its Western States and Territories Caucus, to criticize Heinrich in his own social media post for being “noticeably silent” on Haaland’s victory at a moment when, “Democrats should be lifting one another up and uniting after a primary.”

“This is not by accident,” Crespín wrote of Heinrich: “His silence is purposeful and intentionally undermining.”

On Thursday morning, Heinrich formally endorsed Haaland for the Nov. 3 general election, and the two Democrats praised each other in statements in an accompanying news release.

Heinrich spokesperson Caty Payette told Source NM in an emailed statement that the Thursday endorsement had “nothing to do” with Crespín’s or anyone else’s social media posts. She also explained why Heinrich did not endorse Haaland during the primary. 

“With so much of the media attention going to the governor’s primary race, the Senator chose to prioritize his pre-primary engagement in down ballot races, ensuring key leaders had the support they needed there,” she said. “With the primary vote now behind us, Senator Heinrich is proud to endorse Deb and eager to work alongside her to deliver for New Mexico.”

On Friday, Haaland’s campaign announced that the whole slate of winning Democrats, along with Heinrich, would gather to tailgate before the New Mexico United game in Albuquerque.  

Democrats waste no time in blasting Cunningham as NM’s 2nd Congressional District race kicks off

As primary election votes were still rolling in Tuesday evening, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a statement titled “The Case Against Cunningham,” laying out its arguments against Republican former Albuquerque police officer Greg Cunningham who is challenging U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) for the 2nd Congressional District in the Nov. 3 general election.

The roughly 2,000-word memo signals the national spotlight expected on the 2nd Congressional District seat, which often ranks among the nation’s most contested races and draws millions of dollars in outside funding. 

The memo describes Cunningham “as another rubber stamp for an extreme agenda that’s crushing New Mexico.” Cunningham’s campaign did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Friday.

Vasquez is seeking re-election to a third term in the seat. He beat Republican challenger Yvette Herrell, who held the seat from 2021 to 2023, in 2024 by more than 10,000 votes. National election experts at Cook Political Report designated the race in January as slightly favoring Vasquez. 

Still, Republicans are hoping to flip the seat as they seek to maintain their thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Donald Trump in April endorsed Cunningham in a statement, saying the U.S. Marine Corps Veteran “knows the wisdom and courage required to defend our country.”

RPNM Chair Barela narrowly loses her Otero County Commission seat

Republican Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Amy Barela narrowly lost her Otero County Commission position in Tuesday’s primary, falling 46 votes short of roughly 1,700 cast in her primary race against fellow Republican Jonathan Emery.

NM judge rules Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Barela must leave post  

The narrow defeat comes days after a New Mexico district court judge ruled that Barela could no longer serve as party chairwoman, following a lawsuit fellow Republican candidates filed that cited party rules that prohibit a chairperson from also running in a contested primary. 

The Republican Party of New Mexico, in a petition filed last week, asked the Supreme Court to intervene to prevent Barela’s ouster. That lawsuit is pending.

Barela, in a brief phone call Friday, declined to comment on what her election loss might mean for her standing in the court case. She cited “pending litigation” as the reason she wouldn’t comment.

Semi-open primary advocate celebrates ‘amazing turnout’ from independent voters

Sila Avcil, co-founding executive director of New Mexico Voters First, said the 37,600 “decline to state” voters who participated in the Tuesday primary marks a “historic” and “amazing” turnout in the state’s first-ever foray into opening up its primaries.

Voters who opted not to register with either of the state’s major parties were empowered to vote in the primary election this year, following a 2025 state law that established semi-open primaries.

The 37,600 voters comprise roughly 10% of the state’s growing independent voter base. Avcil said she expects that percentage to grow as more voters learn about the change and gain a deeper appreciation for the importance of primary elections.

By the #s: New Mexico’s growing independent voter base

Because so many candidates who win primaries move on to uncontested general elections, primaries “determine the actual winners” in most elections, she told Source NM on Friday. Eight of 17 New Mexico House candidates who won contested primaries this year face no general election opponent.

Avcil, reflecting on the race, said she was interested to see candidates’ varying strategies to court the new independent voter bloc. Some, like Haaland, sent mailers and other advertisements to independent voters, but didn’t change messaging to speak to them directly. Others didn’t do targeted outreach to independent voters at all, she said.

And then there’s New Mexico House of Representatives District 27 Democratic candidate Abby Foster, who is the lone challenger to unseat an incumbent state lawmaker this season. Avcil said Foster made a point of knocking on as many independent voters’ doors in her district as possible with a specific message about the semi-open primary. 

Danny Bernal, Jr., Foster’s campaign manager, told Source NM on Friday that Foster’s campaign knocked on the door of every independent voter the campaign identified as likely to vote for a Democrat, plus about half of independents in the district who weren’t as likely, based on a Democratic party database.

Bernal said he is still awaiting data that might show conclusively whether independents, aka “decline to state” voters, were behind Foster’s 142-vote victory in a race with more than 4,000 ballots cast. 

“But I definitely do attribute a lot of what Abby did, a lot of what we did, in trying to turn out that DTS vote,” he said.