Deb Haaland, the former congresswoman and interior secretary, might have expected a cakewalk after she declared her candidacy for the open governorship of New Mexico. A political celebrity in her Democratic state, she would make history as the first Native American woman elected governor.
But Sam Bregman, district attorney of New Mexico’s most populous county and father of Chicago Cubs all-star Alex Bregman, decided instead to give her a race as a tough-on-crime Democrat trying to clean up a violent state.
Ahead of the Democratic primary on June 2, New Mexicans find themselves with an unexpected choice.
“I don’t think we should have coronations in a democracy,” the elder Mr. Bregman said in an interview.
Stylistically, he and Ms. Haaland could not be more different. Ms. Haaland, a soft-spoken progressive, has emphasized her ancestral roots in the state and the parts of her personal story that mirror the struggles of everyday residents, like battling addiction, stretching to afford rent and raising a child as a single mother. She favors Indigenous-made turquoise and silver accessories, while Mr. Bregman sports a trademark black cowboy hat.
The two are squaring off at a crucial moment for their state, which stands to suffer more than perhaps any other under President Trump’s deep cuts to the federal safety net. New Mexico has among the highest share of residents who rely on food stamps and Medicaid. And the state already faces serious challenges, ranking near the bottom of the nation in education and near the top in violent crime rates.
Mr. Bregman is selling himself as a swaggering lawman who is unafraid to lock up wrongdoers — be they juvenile defendants or masked federal immigration agents. He has sought to appeal to the state’s moderates and independents, who are newly able to participate in New Mexico’s party primaries.
The current governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, is term-limited, and in New Mexico, where no Republicans hold statewide office, the winner of the Democratic primary is likely to be the next governor.
The contest will gauge the type of leader blue-state voters want during Mr. Trump’s chaotic second term — a seasoned politician who says she’ll work with diverse groups to build consensus or an underdog counting on his confrontational approach to resonate in an era of bare-knuckled politics.
“I don’t want to be the governor that is untouchable and stands on the top floor and says, ‘OK, this is what we’re doing,’” Ms. Haaland said in an interview. She pledged to “listen more than I talk.”
Ms. Haaland, who is regularly stopped for selfies on hiking trails and at diners, has a wide advantage in fund-raising and is well ahead in limited public polling.
But at a time when Democrats are deeply dissatisfied with the status quo, Mr. Bregman hopes Ms. Haaland’s national profile could be as much a hindrance as a help. While polling has given Ms. Haaland a strong lead, enough voters remain undecided to keep Mr. Bregman’s hopes alive. He has promised to shake up a party establishment he accused of being “weak, ineffective and complicit” in Mr. Trump’s return to power.
“Who’s tough enough to push back against Trump and the chaos that’s coming out of Washington?” Mr. Bregman asked.
Gabriel Sanchez, the executive director of the University of New Mexico Center for Social Policy, said the race was still up for grabs. At 62, Mr. Bregman is just three years younger than Ms. Haaland, but he has made inroads with young voters, Mr. Sanchez said. Ms. Haaland seems to be billing herself as “the traditional safe choice candidate,” he added.
Ms. Haaland has insisted she is taking nothing for granted, and when voters tell her she has the race locked up, she interjects. “I do not have it in the bag,” she said between campaign stops on a recent afternoon. “I never say that. I will work until 7 o’clock on June 2 when the polls close.”
The primary has become green-chile spicy. Mr. Bregman has seized on the fact that Ms. Haaland’s name appears in Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, who owned a ranch in New Mexico and maintained close ties to the state’s political elite. Ms. Haaland is listed as a passenger on a jet chartered by one of Mr. Epstein’s companies in 2014, during her ultimately unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor.
Ms. Haaland said her running mate at the time, Gary King, had arranged the trip to a Washington fund-raiser, and she had no idea Mr. Epstein was involved, nor had she ever met him. Mr. King, whose father had sold Mr. Epstein the land where he would build his ranch, was then under scrutiny for accepting campaign contributions from Mr. Epstein.
“Everybody in New Mexico deserves to know the truth of what happened out there,” Mr. Bregman said.
Ms. Haaland said her opponent’s tactics show desperation, and her campaign has stressed that the aircraft in question was not Mr. Epstein’s personal jet, but a third-party private plane.
“If I rode on the Epstein plane, then Sam Bregman is a real cowboy,” Ms. Haaland said. “He ain’t no real cowboy. I didn’t ride on Epstein’s plane.”
Ms. Haaland has found herself under perhaps unanticipated scrutiny. Aside from holding “some significant titles,” Mr. Bregman said, she has not delivered for her constituents. Gabriel S. Galanda, an Indigenous rights attorney, said Ms. Haaland had overlooked abuses against Native Americans across the country when she broke ground as the first Native interior secretary.
“As one of us, we held her to a high standard, maybe a higher standard than normal,” Mr. Galanda said. “I think the opportunity that she had to make a real difference in the lives of Indigenous Americans, in particular tribal citizens on the reservation, was squandered.”
Ms. Haaland has defended her record, pointing to a far-reaching review of the nightmarish abuses that Native American children were subjected to at the government-run institutions they were forced to attend for more than a century.
“That has helped a lot of people to heal from past trauma,” said Ms. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo who grew up hearing about how three generations of her family had been sent to boarding schools.
Ms. Haaland has also remained fiercely loyal to former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and she became emotional as she talked about the opportunity he gave her when he nominated her to his cabinet.
“Once all the dust settles, people are going to say that he was one of the best presidents we’ve ever had,” Ms. Haaland said.
At campaign stops across New Mexico, voters were more focused on a different president.
At a packed forum in the tiny high desert village of Galisteo, about 25 miles south of Santa Fe, one resident quizzed Ms. Haaland and Mr. Bregman about their plans to prevent “Trump and his cronies from destroying Chaco Canyon,” a sacred Native American site in the state’s northwest corner.
During her tenure as interior secretary, Ms. Haaland helped protect the area from new oil and gas drilling, but the Trump administration may scrap those safeguards. Both candidates pledged to take Mr. Trump to court if he tried.
They staked out subtly different positions when asked about data center developments. Mr. Bregman said he opposed a statewide ban, like the one Maine is now considering, and he highlighted the construction jobs such projects create.
Ms. Haaland said the industry needed guardrails and under her watch would have to operate entirely on renewable energy.
Howard Guion, an 80-year-old Vietnam veteran from Las Cruces, said he wanted the next governor to focus on law and order. To Mr. Guion, a secretary in his local N.A.A.C.P. chapter, that means curbing crime and preventing police killings, which occur in New Mexico at a higher rate than in any other state.
He plans to vote for Mr. Bregman.
“We need someone who will be fair-minded and someone who has a firm hand,” Mr. Guion said.
In Gallup, where more than half of residents are Native American, Navajo voters cheered Ms. Haaland as someone who would finally take their concerns seriously. Many, like Toni Pinedo, a retired nurse, and several friends from her sewing group, were eager to vote for an Indigenous candidate.
“I know that she’ll fight for us,” Ms. Pinedo said. “I know she’ll protect us.”
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
The post Deb Haaland’s Historic Run for Governor Hits a Primary Snag appeared first on New York Times.
