SANTA FE, N.M. — Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull won their parties’ gubernatorial nominations Tuesday night, setting the stage for what will be New Mexico’s most consequential governor’s race in a generation.

Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo citizen who could become the first Native American woman elected governor in U.S. history, routed Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman 72 to 28 in the Democratic primary. Hull, the longest-serving mayor in Rio Rancho history, held off a late surge from PR professional Doug Turner and cannabis executive Duke Rodriguez to take the Republican nod with 47%.

Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin edged Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark 53 to 47 in a close race for the open Democratic secretary of state nomination.

Turnout

New Mexico’s first semi-open primary — which for the first time allowed unaffiliated voters to request a major-party ballot — generated little crossover enthusiasm. Statewide turnout came in at 24.41%, with 343,768 ballots cast out of 1,408,185 eligible voters and all 2,204 precincts reporting.

The roughly 390,000 unaffiliated registrants largely sat out, consistent with patterns seen elsewhere when the format launches without a particularly galvanizing down-ballot contest.

The Races

Governor

The Democratic race was never particularly close.

Haaland dominated Bregman from the moment polls closed — the Associated Press called the race within 30 minutes. Bregman, who pushed aggressively on public safety as Bernalillo County DA and framed his candidacy around electability, was unable to close a gap that pre-primary polling showed as wide as 30 points.

The two also traded sharp accusations during the campaign, including Bregman’s charge that Haaland’s team had published his family’s personal tax records online.

On the Republican side, the race tightened considerably in the final weeks.

A Public Opinion Strategies poll conducted two weeks before the election showed Hull at 33%, Turner at 30, and Rodriguez at just 12, with a quarter of voters still undecided. Hull held on, but Turner — who picked up endorsements from a cluster of state senators and former U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell down the stretch — closed to within 10 points.

Rodriguez, the former state cabinet secretary turned UltraHealth CEO, struggled down the stretch after being served a cease-and-desist from President Trump’s legal team over unauthorized use of Trump’s likeness in campaign materials.

Hull centered his campaign on his 12-year mayoral record in Rio Rancho, arguing that the city’s economic growth and public safety improvements offered a template for statewide governance.

“We ran a campaign that focused on the issues,” Hull told supporters at his election night watch party, “a campaign that focused on who we were and not a campaign that attacked or tore people down.”

In his remarks, Hull drew a direct contrast with Haaland: “New Mexico families are hurting and the policies of the last several years have not worked.”

Lieutenant Governor

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who is vacating her office to run down-ballot, won the Democratic lieutenant governor primary over state Sen. Harold James Pope Jr. by a commanding 80-to-20 margin. On the Republican side, state Sen. David Gallegos of Eunice took 50%, ahead of attorney Aubrey Blair Dunn at 38% and Manuel Lardizabal at 12%.

Secretary of State

With Toulouse Oliver departing, the Democratic SOS primary came down to two county clerks. López Askin, who has served as Doña Ana County Clerk since 2018 and has cited her office’s performance under pressure — including a death threat from a defeated Republican candidate — as evidence of her fitness for the role, narrowly defeated Clark, who had finished first at the Democratic convention with 46% of delegate votes and led in fundraising heading into the primary. The final margin was roughly 12,500 votes.

Commissioner of Public Lands

In one of the more striking results of the night, Juan de Jesús Sánchez III defeated state Rep. Matthew McQueen in the Democratic primary for commissioner of public lands, 56% to 33%, with rancher Jonas Moya taking the remaining 11%.

McQueen entered the race as the clear establishment favorite — a 12-year Roundhouse veteran from Galisteo who led all candidates in fundraising at more than $320,000 and carried endorsements from former commissioners Ray Powell and Jim Baca and from Conservation Voters New Mexico. Sánchez, a 34-year-old political director for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and former Army Corps of Engineers natural resources specialist, raised roughly half as much.

But a oil-backed political action committee purchased television ads in his support in the race’s final days, and Sánchez’s biography — a 13th-generation New Mexican from a ranching family in Valencia and Socorro counties whose family’s land relied on a State Trust Land grazing lease — gave him a distinctive pitch in a race that touches directly on how the state manages 9 million surface acres and 13 million mineral acres held in trust for public education and other institutions.

Sánchez will face Republican Michael Perry of Roswell in November.

State House

A dozen Democratic House primaries rounded out the night.

The closest came in House District 27, where Abby Christine Foster edged Marian Matthews by 142 votes on the Democratic side, while Jahnelle Louise Garcia defeated Robert Godshall by 103 votes in the Republican primary of the same district. Yolanda Jaramillo held off Debbie Rodella by roughly 550 votes in District 41.

Other Democratic nominees advancing: Miguel Garcia (District 14), Yanira Gurrola Valenzuela (District 16), Micaela Lara Cadena (District 33), Raymundo Lara (District 34), Lori Martinez (District 37), Joseph Sanchez (District 40), Michelle Paulene Abeyta (District 69), and Anita Amalia Gonzales (District 70).

Looking Ahead to November

The Haaland–Hull matchup will be the most-watched race on the November ballot and has already drawn national attention. Haaland is broadly favored in a state that has not elected a Republican governor since Susana Martinez won re-election in 2014.

Hull has argued his executive record in Rio Rancho — where the city grew from roughly 93,000 to nearly 113,000 residents during his tenure — gives him the credentials to make the race competitive. Both nominees now turn to a general election campaign that will play out against the backdrop of federal policy fights and a state budget flush with oil revenue.

The open SOS race between López Askin and the Republican nominee takes on added weight in a cycle where administration of the vote remains a flash point nationally. Gallegos and Hull will run as a paired Republican ticket in November under New Mexico’s joint gubernatorial system.

All results remain unofficial pending certification by the New Mexico Secretary of State.