Four candidates vying to become the New Mexico Democratic Party’s lieutenant governor nominee made their closing arguments Saturday to the party’s State Central Committee, which is tasked with electing a candidate to run alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland.
The Saturday meeting marked the culmination of a roughly month-long campaign since Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who previously won the Democratic party’s nomination in the June primary election, dropped out June 18 due to health reasons.
The SCC met virtually for about 20 minutes Saturday to hear from each of four candidates seeking to replace Toulouse Oliver and join Haaland on the ticket ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
The roughly 500 SCC members will now cast votes, using a ranked-choice voting system, until 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Democratic Party of New Mexico expects to announce a winner Thursday.
The candidates — Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, state Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque), Geoffrey Luehring and Toni Pinedo — each spoke for roughly four minutes in their final appeals to the SCC before voting began.
Garcia Richard, who spoke as more than a dozen supporters stood behind her, touted her experience fighting for public lands across eight years as land commissioner, as well as her collaboration with Haaland when Haaland was federal Interior Secretary under former U.S. President Joe Biden. Haaland has endorsed Garcia Richard to be her lieutenant governor.
“We’ve worked together for years,” Garcia Richard told the SCC. “Deb trusts me to do this job, and I can promise you there will be no daylight between the governor and lieutenant governor.”
Pope, who is New Mexico’s first-ever Black state senator, lost to Toulouse Oliver in the primary. He described himself as an anti-establishment Democrat whose political success resulted from a commitment to working-class voters and hard work, not “powerful connections.”
“I know there’s been an endorsement in this race, but this vote belongs to you,” Pope told the SCC. “No endorsement can cast your vote. No political leader can replace your conscience. Only you can decide what kind of leadership our party will put before the people of New Mexico.”
Luehring, of Albuquerque, said his non-political background would make him well-suited to join Haaland on the ticket. New Mexicans don’t need another politician as lieutenant governor, he said, but instead need a “ground-level force” that would implement Haaland’s “high-level vision.”
“Secretary Haaland has more than enough political experience for everyone running. We don’t need another politician sitting beside her, doing the same thing,” he said.
Luehring wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of pop icon Britney Spears and the phrase “Gimme More,” the title of one her 2007 hits. He later explained that the shirt was a “subtle hint that we should expect more from our government.”
Pinedo, the final candidate to speak, is an Indigenous advocate from Gallup. She said she decided to jump into the race out of concern for homeless youth across the state and hopes whomever the SCC elects makes finding housing and resources for troubled young people a priority.
“You better pick the right one,” she said. “And you better pick the one that’s gonna actually work for everybody, not because that’s your name on a poster.”
