New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently endorsed Democratic candidates in the two-way contest for Secretary of State and in the most crowded race for a seat in the state Legislature ahead of the June 2 primary election.
Lujan Grisham endorsed Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin’s bid for New Mexico Secretary of State. López Askin is running against Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark as incumbent and term-limited Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver campaigns to be the state’s next lieutenant governor. Whoever wins will face Republican Ramona L. Goolsby in the Nov. 3 election.
“New Mexico elections are the best in the country. Amanda has the experience and skills to protect our voting rights, stand up to election deniers and keep our elections safe and fair for all New Mexicans,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Toulouse Oliver also endorsed López Askin as a worthy successor to the office, writing in a statement that “New Mexicans can trust her to stand up to Trump and protect our voting rights.”
Earlier this year, López Askin was a vocal supporter of the Legislature’s new law prohibiting federal agents from interfering in the state’s elections. She and Toulouse Oliver discussed protecting voting rights during a February panel, alongside U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who has also endorsed López Askin.
Lujan Grisham on Monday also endorsed a state lawmaker whom she appointed to the Legislature in 2025. Rep. Martha Garcia (D-Pine Hill) has represented District 6, which includes Cibola and McKinley counties in northwest New Mexico, since the late Rep. Eliseo Alcon stepped down due to health concerns.
Garcia is a former Cibola County commissioner and is the president of the Ramah Navajo Chapter House.
Her four-way race for the Democratic nomination is the most crowded of any legislative election this year. She faces David Alcon, Eliseo’s son; Priscilla Benally, vice president of the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Board of Education; and Johnny Valdez, a former Cibola County sheriff and recently retired as a Cibola County magistrate judge. The winner is set to face Republican Paul Spencer in the Nov. 3 general election.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said she was backing Garcia “for the same reason I appointed her in 2025: she is a strong representative for the rural, small-town, and Native communities of Cibola and McKinley counties.”
