Democrats’ performance on election night far outpaced any polls or predictions beforehand — both on a national level and here in New Mexico. Democrats in the land of enchantment took every statewide and federal office on the ballot.
Now that the blue tsunami has crashed, the state’s Republican party — which hasn’t won a major statewide office since Susanna Martinez was re-elected governor in 2014 — says it’s probably time to go back to square one.
And there’s a surprising amount of hopefulness and positivity behind that stance.
For example, at the election night watch party for Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Greg Hull, as the night moved along, and votes started rolling in, the mood certainly took a hit, but there was a large and determined contingent of Republican supporters, donors, volunteers and even a few candidates who were still singing along to “Mambo Number 5” and Electric Sliding across the dance floor.
It wasn’t long before Hull joined them, dancing with his grandkids, maybe falling out of time a little. One woman said “we’ll just work harder than we ever have.” In short — there was optimism despite the veritable drubbing Republicans were taking at the polls. It’s even how Hull ended his concession speech:
“Thank you so much,” he told the crowd. “Hey, this is a party. Come on now, turn on the music and let's do some dancing!”
And he indeed went down to the dance floor and cut some conservative rug.
As the time neared midnight, Republican candidate for U.S.Senate Larry Marker was hanging out with a few close friends, campaign staffers and his wife around the corner from Hull’s party as the sole patrons of a bar that was getting ready to close its doors.
Marker said he didn’t have specific plans for the future yet, save for serving as designated driver for his friends that night, since he doesn’t drink.
“I think tomorrow morning we're gonna get up, we're gonna take our — kicking like a man, and live to fight another day,” Marker said. “I got a poem. You want to hear my poem? it says, ‘fight on, my men.’ Sir Andrew said, ‘A little I am hurt, but not yet slain. I'm going to lay here and bleed a while, then I'm going to get up and fight again.’”
So what does that actually look like for the Republican Party of New Mexico, which hasn’t held a statewide office for almost a decade? Leticia Muñoz, RPNM’s executive director, said the party is at a crossroads.
“I do believe that RPNM is at a place in time where we are at a complete reset of our party, which is a really good thing.”
The math, she said, is simple.
“In order to flip a state, whichever party,” she said, “you've got to register more voters, and that has always been our goal.”
So then what does the RPNM plan to do differently? Muñoz said they’ve been injecting new blood into their ranks recently, and reaching out to younger people, which will be more important than ever going forward.
“Change is good. You know, we have people that have been within the party for a very long time. They're very, very experienced,” she said, “but they're also very tired and want to retire.”
The party has not been able to reach a quorum to fill the chair position since a court ruling ordered then-chair Amy Barela out of the position. In addition to changing up their organization, Muñoz said in order to be competitive on a statewide level, the party needs to be willing to come to the middle and work with Democrats. She said at times in the past she’s seen both moderate Democrats and Republicans move farther to the fringes of their parties, worsening tribalism.
“When that has happened over the years,” she said, “what I see is that at the end of the day, New Mexico as a whole is not being served.”
She said the RPNM might need to reconsider some of its positions or approaches to connect with a broader cross section of the state.
“Progressives and the far right can come together on a moderate playing field and do what's right for New Mexico,” she said. “I think that's what needs to be done as a whole on both party levels.”
Guiding their decisions, and the benchmark by which their success will be judged, is data.
“The data doesn't lie,” Muñoz said. “You can look at all the numbers and really know where we did well, where we didn't do well, where the opportunities are, and work based off of each county individually.”
In addition to the data, the other thing the RPNM needs is more hands to help lighten the load.
“See, that's the key: it’s having enough people to really work and do what's needed,” she said. “I think that's where you start seeing the success, and all of that has to be done in 2027 so that you're ready to hit the ground running in 2028.”
But amidst the change, a few things are bound to stay the same. Marker says he didn’t have his eye on any offices yet, but that he’ll be sticking around, and as for Greg Hull:
“You know I've been in the political arena for the last 13, 14 years,” he said, “and so we're always concerned about what's happening in the legislature and in our communities. So I see myself getting involved somewhere. We just haven't figured where that is yet.”
And Muñoz said she stands by the candidates they chose to run this year, and was happy with their performance.
“Although we didn't have any statewide wins,” she said, “I still believe that all of those candidates will go on to do something really amazing in our party.”
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
