New Mexico House of Representatives District 60 spans the western edge of Rio Rancho, where the suburban subdivisions eventually give way to large patches of raw desert. The contested primary race for this seat, though, is proving anything but sleepy.
Rio Rancho for years has appeared on track to eclipse Las Cruces as the state’s second-largest city. It’s one of the few places in the state to report population growth, and leaders in this area often tout economic development, health care and public safety as top priorities.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Joshua Hernandez first won election to the seat in 2020 when he ran unopposed and won 100% of the vote. For the first time since winning his seat, Hernandez faces an opponent — real estate agent recruiter Zac Anaya — in the June 2 primary. The winner will then face Democrat Luke Jungmann in the Nov. 3 general election.
This week, Anaya said he filed a complaint against Hernandez with the State Ethics Commission and accused him of failing to disclose his romantic partner and business associate’s lobbying clients as required under the New Mexico Financial Disclosure Act. Hernandez dismissed the complaint as his opponent using the ethics commission “for political gain.”
Source NM posed several questions to both candidates about their races. Their answers have been edited for clarity and concision.
Joshua Hernandez
Joshua Hernandez has worked as a campaign manager for Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull’s municipal races and as a digital media director and marketing manager.
Since taking office five years ago, Hernandez said he has secured nearly $14 million in funding for projects in Rio Rancho and worked to pass the “Site Readiness Act” in 2025, which helps state officials and developers fast-track economic drivers, and signed onto medical malpractice reform as a co-sponsor. That resume makes him the natural fit for the job, he said.
“The Legislature is very much built on relationships and having those relationships is why I have been able to be so successful in the Legislature,” he told Source NM. “I’ve gotten 28 bills passed in my six years, which I think is a pretty significant number.”
What is the most important issue facing your district?
It’s two things. Public safety — people are worried about their families and they’re worried about feeling safe in their home.
What people are talking about is that they’re worried about the creep of crime up the hill from Albuquerque, which I totally understand.
Another big one that I hear a lot about is affordability. I have one of the fastest-growing districts in the country.
Gas at this particular moment — in a week it may be different — my car went from $45 a tank to I think I paid $90 for a tank not very long ago.
What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?
In the metro area right now, it’s crime. Murder and homicide may be going down, but property crime, burglary and theft are still at a higher level than most residents think it should be. And then you have juvenile crime.
And health care, for sure. We passed and I co-sponsored House Bill 99 [the medical malpractice reform bill] this year. It’s a good starting point. It unfortunately is not going to be the silver bullet that fixes everything.
What’s the first bill you’d introduce in the 2027 legislative session?
There’s a bill that I’ve been working on that I’ve introduced a few times and I think I’ve finally figured out how to make it work…it’s a gun bill, but not in the way that you think. It’s common-sense. Both sides like it.
A couple years ago, we passed the Bennie Hargrove bill — you must keep your firearms in a safe in some way, shape or form. That was an unintended expense for some people.
Doing a tax credit for [small] gun safes…Nobody, Republican or Democrat, wants gun violence.
[Also] setting up New Mexico to have a Rare Disease Advisory Council. I have a group of people who live in my district who have these rare diseases who are all having to go out of state to get treatment because we don’t have the setup on the government level for hospitals and doctors to have a starting spot to be able to treat some of these diseases. This one’s very early on — we just had our second meeting.
What’s your top choice for legislative committee service?
I love the committees that I sit on. I sit on Taxation and Revenue and I’m the ranking Republican member on Commerce and Economic Development.
It’s right in my wheelhouse. I’ve been an economic development, business-focused person well before I was in the Legislature.
What’s the strongest skill that makes you the best candidate for this race?
I know the system already. I wouldn’t be starting out from scratch…I think that my years of service to Rio Rancho, even before I was a legislator, show a lot.
We passed the first prosthetics insurance coverage bill.
My very first year, we passed liquor license reform, which took the price of a liquor license from starting at $300,000, to now you can have a liquor license for $2,500 a year. In the first year, there were 125 new restaurants that have liquor licenses. In this state, if you’re not fast food or fast casual, if you don’t have a liquor license you’re at a severe disadvantage.
Do you support paying state lawmakers?
I don’t actually support it in its current form.
There’s pros and cons to it. The pros to it would be that there’s a potential, there’s a possibility that you would get more people who wanted to run for office from more diverse backgrounds that were not like most of the people in the Legislature, who are retired, or lawyers, or teachers or you have to be well-off.
The downside that I see is right now I don’t believe that the Legislature as a whole deserves…a significant raise. I don’t feel like our Legislature is doing a good enough job right now for the people of New Mexico to deserve that raise.
Zac Anaya
Zac Anaya was born and raised in Albuquerque. He dropped out of the University of New Mexico his senior year to pursue a career in real estate. He’s currently a senior vice president at the Perry Group and Real Brokerage, a real estate recruiting firm.
Other than a brief stint in Utah, Anaya said he’s made his life in New Mexico. He said the campaign is personal — he decided to embark on his first political campaign last year after running into his opponent at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
I’ve known the incumbent since I was 19 years old. I was the intern on a campaign where he managed the interns,” he told Source NM. “When we moved to the district about three and a half years ago, I tried to call him because there were some votes I wasn’t a huge fan of…He ignored my call, he ignored my texts. I saw him at the Balloon Fiesta last year and he looked at me, he saw me and he made a 90-degree turn. That’s when I turned to my wife and said, ‘I’m running.’
What is the most important issue facing your district?
Public safety and education. Rio Rancho is a great city, but we’re not immune to the consequences of 90 years of failed policy in Santa Fe.
Crime is spilling over from Albuquerque. That terrifies me, it terrifies my wife and it makes us scared for our kids.
Our kids are sitting in schools that are dead last in education. When you combine those two things, everything else stems from the fact that we’re not safe and our children aren’t being educated properly.
What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?
I think it’s the same thing. It’s education and it’s public safety, across the board.
It’s a universal issue.
What’s the first bill you’d introduce in the 2027 legislative session?
Enacting term limits both for our federal representatives and our state legislators. Three terms for the House, two terms for the Senate, both federally and at the state level.
I think it’s incredibly important to get new blood in Santa Fe and in Washington, D.C.
What’s your top choice for legislative committee service?
Taxation and Revenue would definitely be one of the main ones that I would like to sit on.
As I go through the bills that have died in committee year after year, that’s the one I see where most of the bills that I follow and support go to die. It’s kind of a black hole for conservative ideas.
What’s the strongest skill that makes you the best candidate for this race?
I’ve been in the private sector my entire life. I build things, that’s what I do. In the private sector, you either produce results, or you’re gone.
There’s no vote to table, you can’t run out the session, you can’t cast blame on anybody else. I lead a recruiting organization — I have people in all 50 states and I’ve managed our team in New Mexico and in Utah and we’ve driven real outcomes in a very, very competitive industry. That’s the mentality I bring to Santa Fe. My opponent has been there for five years…he’s never earned it from voters in the Republican primary and after five years, the district can’t point to a single thing he’s done.
Do you support paying state lawmakers?
I would support it, if it comes with actual accountability. I think it needs to be tied to term limits. We need to have transparency requirements and performance standards.
Right now with the unpaid Legislature, only certain people can afford to serve.
If paying legislators means that we can have more people to serve, a more diverse group, then I’m open to it. But not just a blank check for the people that are already there.
