State holds its first ‘semi-open’ primary with independent voters casting ballots in the major parties’ races
By Joshua Bowling, Julia Goldberg, Patrick Lohmann, Danielle Prokop, and Leah Romero | Source NM
Voters across New Mexico started casting ballots early on Tuesday, with many saying the gubernatorial contests — both the Democratic and Republican parties have contested primaries — stood out as the most important race as term-limited Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham finishes up her second term.
By 10 a.m., 23,605 voters had cast ballots on election day, with just under 208,000 — approximately 15% of the state’s electorate — having voted so far. Source NM fanned out across the state to talk with voters.
Thinking about crime in southern New Mexico
In Las Cruces, the race for governor and Doña Ana County sheriff were top of mind for voters.
Several told Source NM Tuesday morning that they voted for change in the state’s executive office, as well as for shifts in approaches to public safety at the county level.
Moises Sanchez, who voted at the Doña Ana Community College East Mesa Campus, told Source that he voted for Democratic candidate and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman for governor over former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland because he has not seen significant changes for the better under Lujan Grisham’s administration.
He added that while he currently lives in Las Cruces, he is originally from Grant County and has noticed an uptick in crime in both areas.
“Nothing seems to have changed a whole lot,” Sanchez said. “I think probably one of the biggest things is just violence in the cities with our youth, and something just needs to be taken care of with that. I mean, it’s not so much just here in Las Cruces, but it seems like all over the state of New Mexico is having a lot of issues.”
Dan Casanova, owner of Enchantment Custom Builders in Las Cruces, told Source at the Doña Ana County Government Center that he tries to stay on top of local politics as a business owner and that he voted for Republican candidate Todd Garrison for sheriff because he is “tired of the status quo.”
“Same with the governorship too, it’s like we’ve been stuck in this thing for years and years and years and there’s no change. And I think we’re all getting tired of it,” Casanova said.
Lillian Villalobos told Source that she believes Lujan Grisham has done well as governor, but that she hopes a strong voice will take over next. She said she voted for Bregman and wants to see more action being taken against crime and stricter consequences for breaking the law.
“I got my truck stolen a while back,” she said. “It was never like this here [in Las Cruces].”
Barbra Al-Ali told Source that she likes the policies of the Lujan Grisham administration and voted for Haaland for governor to continue with similar progress. She also stressed the importance of women’s voting rights and said her granddaughter is old enough to vote for the first time this election cycle, so she is setting an example for her grandchildren.
“I feel it’s important for women to have the right to vote,” Al-Ali said. “I vote all the time, but I want to set the example for the kids, because if I don’t go then they won’t go.”
Rural concerns
The Pinedale Chapter House on the Navajo Nation saw a steady procession of voters Tuesday, including several who described being excited at the prospect of voting for Haaland who — if she goes on to win the general election — would be the nation’s first-ever Indigenous woman governor.
But it wasn’t just Haaland’s Indigenous identity that made Patricia Becenti vote for her.
“Everything that she says she’s going to do, she’ll do everything the opposite of Donald Trump,” said Becenti, whose husband is seeking re-election as the incumbent McKinley County assessor, told Source NM.
Asked what it felt like to vote for Haaland, Becenti simply said, “pride.”
She also said she had not heard much from Haaland’s opponent Bregman out in the small reservation community about 20 miles east of Gallup. “I don’t even know what he looks like,” she said.
Jonas High said he rarely sees politicians, especially those “from Santa Fe,” except during election season.
“When voting and elections come up, people just pop up like prairie dogs,” he said of candidates. “You don’t hardly see them around in rural communities like this. If they came around and visit us and say, ‘This is what I’m doing for you guys in Santa Fe; just to let you guys know I’m so and so.’ That would be a different story over here.”
He said he was leaning toward voting for Haaland, but he said he was offended at her efforts as U.S. Secretary of the Interior to establish a 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Canyon that prevented oil and gas drilling. He saw it as a violation of Navajo sovereignty.
“She’s pushing us Navajos back,” he said.
Paul Brodie, Jr., who described himself as “MAGA” but said he voted in the Democratic primary, said he hopes Bregman wins. “He’s a cowboy,” he said.
But apart from a preference in the governor’s race, he said he just hopes whoever is elected on the state level works more closely with the Navajo Nation regarding service delivery, particularly in the “checkerboarded” region of the eastern Navajo Nation, in which multiple jurisdictions overlap. The differing land ownership makes building water or electrical infrastructure difficult.
“That’s the thing that really frustrates a lot of the people,” he said. “Projects that need to be done, the water issue, the power line issue. “You have to have a lot of resolution over unnecessary stuff to get a little bit of help.”
Independents cast their ballots in Albuquerque
In Albuquerque, city workers and other voters streamed across the threshold at the Bernalillo County Clerk Annex in the city’s downtown just after New Mexico’s polls opened at 7 a.m. for the primary elections.
While most voters told Source NM choosing the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor was the most important, the three-way race for land commissioner stood tall on the ballot for several voters.
That included independent voter Izzy Obi, 35, an engineer, who opted to vote on the Democratic ballot. He said the commissioner of public lands was the most important race on the ballot, citing its importance for management of millions of public lands.
His pick in the three-way primary was state Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) over Juan de Jesus Sanchez III and Jonas Moya.
“He had a really great message, and he made fun of himself, you really want to see a little more of that in politics these days,” Obi said.
Obi said the semi-open primaries allow for new people to engage with picking the direction of New Mexico saying, “they can’t ignore us now.”
Shana Morris, 56, a library paraprofessional and former Green Party member, said she changed her registration several elections ago to Democrat.
“I was tired of not being able to vote in the primaries,” Morris said.
She said she was unaware of the semi-open primary until the night before the election, and said she would consider changing her registration now to independent or “decline to state.”
Morris said the issues of a worsening environment and ensuring New Mexico has access to abortion pushed her vote for Haaland over Bregman in the governor’s race.
“I like her record,” Morris said of her time representing New Mexico in Congress. “Her list of endorsements was amazing and I think she’ll be good for us.”
On Albuquerque’s westside, state Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) posted up outside of the 98th and Central Shopping Center polling place just after 10 a.m., cheering on voters from the required 100-foot setback for candidates.
Roybal Caballero is seeking a seventh term representing Albuquerque’s House District 13 against Democratic challenger Matthew Archuleta, a public housing expert. The winner of that election does not face a Republican challenger in November.
She said her campaign made special outreach calls to independent “decline to state voters” in the district during early voting and in the days before the June 2 primary.
“Turnout in primaries is already very hard and we’re doing everything we can,” she said. “What’s really driving it this time is the governor’s race, of course, but I’m hearing from voters on the phones that a lot of people are concerned about the economy.”
In Sandoval County, voters excited to back their former mayor for governor
Meanwhile at the Sandoval County Administration building in Bernalillo, many of the Rio Rancho voters who spoke with Source NM after casting their ballots said the race for Sandoval County sheriff was the most important on their ballot — but several noted they were eager to back their former mayor, Gregg Hull, for governor in the Republican primary.
“He did a great job leading the city,” Rio Rancho resident Frank Fanelli told Source NM. “He’s a hard worker, he’s out there, he listens.”
Even voters on the other side of the aisle said they were looking forward to the Nov. 3 general election, when they’ll have a chance to vote for Hull if he wins the party’s nomination Tuesday.
Donna Crary-Johnson of Rio Rancho, a registered Democrat, said she was disappointed that she wasn’t able to cast a ballot for him on Tuesday and said she’d “probably” support him in November if his primary campaign prevails.
“I thought he did a good job in Rio Rancho,” she said, adding that she’s going to closely research where candidates up and down the ballot stand on the issues of artificial intelligence data centers and water, which she believes are the most pressing issues facing New Mexico.
Albert Galvan and Cathy Dunn, a married couple who moved to the area from California seven years ago, said they were eager to support “the right choice” for governor. By that, they said, they meant Hull.
“I just like the way he thinks and how he expresses himself,” Galvan said, adding that Rio Rancho’s population growth since Hull took office is evidence of his strong leadership.
Many of the suburban voters who cast ballots at the Sandoval County building Tuesday morning told Source NM they liked how elected officials led their region in recent years and wanted to see more of the same in their next governor. One voter, though, said she liked what she’s seen out of the governor’s office in the last eight years and wanted to make sure the state’s next governor continued Lujan Grisham’s legacy.
“I like the way that this state had already been going and I wanted to make sure the next person does a similar job,” Karen Carraway, a Rio Rancho Democrat, said.
Carraway said she had closely researched each race on the ballot and entered the polling place with her mind set on Haaland.
“I went in informed,” she said.
Bryan Peters, another registered Democrat, told Source NM he thought the sheriff’s race was the most important on the ballot because of New Mexico’s persistent issues with public safety and policing in rural, unincorporated areas. With that in mind, he voted for Bregman.
He said he wanted someone with law enforcement experience and worried that Haaland, who served in then-President Joe Biden’s administration, was too close to the “defund the police” mindset.
‘Standing strong for democracy’ in Santa Fe
At the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds, poll workers said they had a line of voters waiting when they opened at 7 a.m. and a consistent turnout of voters thereafter. Election judge Anthony Sandoval told Source NM he had not voted himself yet, as he was still weighing which Democratic candidate for governor to choose.
Voters Janice and Jim Squires voted in the Republican primary and said they had chosen Doug Turner in the governor’s race over competitors Gregg Hull and Duke Rodriguez.
“He stands for families and pro-life and really wants to make a difference in our state for improving the quality of the lives of families,” Janice Squires told Source NM.
Both were hopeful that the open seat might yield the way for a Republican governor.
“I personally think MLG took the state in the wrong direction,” Jim Squires said of Lujan Grisham.
Jacqueline Lovell showed up to vote as a registered member of the Green Party, one of the state’s three registered minor parties along with the Libertarian and Forward parties, not realizing she would be ineligible to participate without re-registering with one of the two major parties.
She also did not realize that New Mexico was holding its first semi-open primary allowing independent voters to participate without re-registering, an option she thought she might exercise in the future.
She wanted to vote on Tuesday, she said, to cast her ballot for Haaland.
“She absolutely represents me in every single way,” Lovell said.
Kent Crider voted for Haaland as well, he said, due to “the fact that she’s been in Washington and managing about $14 billion budget …and under very adverse conditions, that’s probably more than any other reason. And the fact that she is Native American from Laguna Pueblo.”
His wife Nancy Haas also voted for Haaland, although she said the decision was “kind of a struggle” as she found “that Bregman has a lot to bring.” Ultimately, she decided, “Deb shows leadership, and as far as I’m concerned, the governor does not have to be a lawyer, a doctor or anything. The governor has to bring everybody together.”
Before Donald Trump became president, Crider noted, he had “tended to vote third party, but as soon as that maniac showed up, I really went back to Democratic roots to fight him. If we get rid of that guy…then I would probably go back to third party.”
In the past, he added, he’s voted as a Republican and as a Libertarian, “but I’ve never voted fascist,” he said, and his top priority is “defeating the MAGA Republican fascist party at all costs.”
Haas also cited democracy as a driving force during this election. “Standing strong in the whole democratic process,” Haas said. “I’ve been voting forever, and I want to make sure it keeps going.”
This story was originally published by Source NM
