SANTA FE — Senate Republicans on Wednesday unanimously elected Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, as caucus chair, succeeding Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice.
The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking has ranked Brantley the most effective Republican senator in the New Mexico Legislature, and this year a Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce award singled her out for building bipartisan support across issues as varied as public safety, medical malpractice reform and cellphone restrictions in classrooms. Colleagues are now betting that track record translates from individual bill-passing to running the 16-member caucus’s strategy and messaging.
“Senator Brantley is entirely deserving of her new role in leadership,” Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, said in a statement, citing her work on overhauling the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department, revising medical malpractice law, and opposing gun restrictions and environmental mandates he characterized as unconstitutional. Sharer also thanked Gallegos for his service in the post.
Gallegos stepped down from the leadership role after becoming the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. He will remain in office representing Senate District 41 while campaigning statewide.
Brantley, in a statement, cast the moment as a call to focus the caucus’s efforts in a chamber where Republicans remain outnumbered.
“In the upper chamber we are 16 strong — outnumbered but never outworked — and I intend to make sure every one of our members is focused, effective, and fighting for what New Mexico families actually need: safer communities, lower taxes, and an economy that gives people a reason to stay,” Brantley said. “The work starts now.”
First elected in 2020, Brantley represents District 35, covering Doña Ana, Hidalgo, Socorro, Catron, Luna and Sierra counties. Beyond her new caucus post, she serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and sits on the Senate Rules Committee. She has been a leading Republican voice on CYFD accountability legislation and on efforts to narrow the gap between rural and urban parts of the state, including the creation of the Rural Ombudsman position.
The leadership change comes as Gallegos campaigns statewide alongside the party’s gubernatorial nominee ahead of the November general election. It is a separate development from the ongoing process on the Democratic side to fill the current lieutenant governor vacancy left by Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s suspension.
