ALBUQUERQUE — When Elias Sisneros sent debate invitations to every major candidate in New Mexico’s 2026 governor’s race, only three wrote back. All three were Republicans.
“Race to the Roundhouse: A Hot Seat Live” is set for Friday, May 8, at Legacy Church, 7201 Central Ave. NW in Albuquerque. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the forum begins at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, Ultra Health Cannabis CEO Duke Rodriguez and Albuquerque communications executive Doug Turner — all three Republican gubernatorial candidates — agreed to appear. Democratic candidates Deb Haaland and Sam Bregman both declined invitations.
The event is presented by Sisneros’ podcast “Unfiltered with Elias” and co-hosted with Abe Baldonado of The Chile Wire, a New Mexico Sentinel partner publication, with Legacy Church serving as a venue co-host.
Baldonado noted the Democratic no-shows during the most recent episode of The Chile Wire. Bregman has publicly called on Haaland to debate him, yet passed on the chance to share a stage with the full field. “Here’s a debate chance for both of you all to get on stage,” Baldonado said, “and you’re running away from it.”
For Sisneros, the forum is the culmination of a political awakening rooted in personal loss. In 2024, his cousin — the owner of Pura Vida Tattoos near Fourth and Coal in Albuquerque — was murdered in his own business. The killer was never caught, even as Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller was publicly claiming that anyone who discharged a firearm in the city had a 95% chance of being apprehended.
“Once I found out that was a lie, I started going down the rabbit hole,” Sisneros told The Chile Wire. “What else is a lie?”
That question drove him to scrutinize state legislation, track agency spending and build a following of New Mexicans hungry for accountability-focused commentary. His short-form videos have drawn millions of combined views across Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. He describes himself as a conservative independent — raised in a Democratic family, no longer interested in either party’s messaging.
“Our politicians have become celebrities, not servants,” Sisneros said. “And that’s a huge problem.”
Baldonado brings a different but complementary lens to the co-hosting role. A former Albuquerque public school teacher and onetime staffer at the New Mexico Public Education Department, he has spent years arguing that the state’s persistent last-place education rankings stem not from a lack of funding but from failed systems and adult interests overriding student needs. He inherited a 12th-grade class reading at a sixth-grade level and has never forgotten it.
“Money doesn’t fix anything,” Baldonado said, echoing former PED Secretary Christopher Ruszkowski. “It’s systems, it’s accountability, it’s real solutions.” New Mexico, he noted, is spending near-historic levels on education and still ranking last.
Both men frame the forum as a direct challenge to what they describe as the managed, media-filtered version of political debate New Mexico typically sees. Sisneros specifically called out a recent KOAT candidate appearance — billed as a “conversation with candidates” rather than a debate — as the problem this event is designed to correct.
“This is gonna be real,” Sisneros said. “There’s no spin. We’re going to ask the tough questions.”
Those questions will center on education, crime and the economy. Candidates won’t just be asked to name problems — they’ll be pressed for specific solutions and tested against each other. “If Doug says he wants to do it one way, well then — why is your way better than Duke’s way?” Sisneros said. “I want them to test their ideas against each other.”
The forum comes at a pivotal moment. The June 2 Republican primary is less than four weeks away, and a recent Albuquerque Journal poll found Hull leading with 30%, Turner at 21% and Rodriguez at 9%, with 40% of likely Republican primary voters still undecided. Sisneros thinks a live, unscripted exchange could move that number.
“They keep getting 30-second sound bites from every candidate,” he said. “I want to hear long form. I want to hear what their actual positions are. Let’s test them.”
Both hosts also stressed what they see as longer-term stakes. The next governor will oversee the state’s 2030 redistricting process, a fact Sisneros said makes this race consequential well beyond a single term.
“We just need more voices in this state,” Sisneros said.
Food and drinks will be available at Legacy Church. The forum is free and open to the public.
