SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN: “I was ready to hold Republicans accountable in 2015 and 2016, I am ready to hold Republicans accountable again in 2025 and 2026.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland understands the challenges New Mexicans are facing and recognizes that we can’t keep doing the same things if we want different results. 

As reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Haaland stepped up as Chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico at a time when the Party faced significant debt and losses at the ballot box. At the end of her term, Haaland left the Party on solid financial footing and with elected leaders who have fought for universal childcare, protected women’s healthcare decisions, and access to college education through the Opportunity Scholarship. 

As governor, Haaland wants New Mexicans to know their state government is fighting for them.

  • Democratic gubernatorial candidates Sam Bregman and Deb Haaland couldn’t be more different. One thing the pair have in common, though: Both served as chairs of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
  • Haaland, a Native American woman, is more reserved. A member of Laguna Pueblo who came from humble beginnings, she is soft-spoken and has called herself a workhorse, not a show horse.
  • She would leave the party in what she calls “the best possible position” and go on to serve in Congress and then the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary.
  • “Obviously, we needed somebody to be a fundraiser also, so that’s what I did,” she said. “We had lost our state House. [Former Gov. Susana Martinez] was running amok with all the Republicans in the state, and we were in debt. Those were all the things that I felt I needed to go in and work hard to change.”
  • The end of her tenure was a different story, she told The New Mexican: “I left our party in a surplus; I left our party with every statewide office held by a Democrat. I left our party in the best possible position that I could have.”
  • Haaland sees parallels between her time as party chair and her gubernatorial campaign.
  • “In 2015, 2016, we had a Republican in office that was really terrible, didn’t care about people and wasn’t afraid of cutting things, cutting behavioral health and cutting things for people who really needed these services,” she said, referring to Martinez, the former governor.
  • “We’re dealing with that with Donald Trump right now,” Haaland continued. “New Mexico is suffering because of the Medicaid cuts, because of the [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefit cuts, because of the cuts to Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, you name it.”
  • “He is a danger to our country,” she said, “and so in much the same way that I was ready to hold Republicans accountable in 2015 and 2016, I am ready to hold Republicans accountable again in 2025 and 2026.”