Michael Perry, a retired game warden who is the Republican candidate for New Mexico’s powerful land commissioner post, pitches himself “not as a Republican or Democrat,” but a “New Mexico state land commissioner” obsessed with “collaboration, accountability and responsible land management.”
His Democratic rivals see something entirely different: an existential threat.
That’s because President Trump has nominated another New Mexico Republican, Steve Pearce, to lead the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, sometimes referred to as the nation’s largest landlord. And with two New Mexico Republicans potentially at the helm of both agencies, dramatic changes could come to a state known as the Land of Enchantment for its breathtaking landscapes and cultural riches.
Even with Mr. Pearce’s confirmation still pending, the B.L.M. on Monday rescinded a Biden-era rule allowing public lands to be leased for conservation purposes. That aligns with Mr. Trump’s goal of championing public lands for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, logging and livestock grazing.
“I don’t think that anyone would have to pressure Perry to fall in line with the Trump agenda,” said Matthew McQueen, a state representative from suburban Santa Fe and one of three Democrats competing in the June 2 primary. “That greatly increases the threat to our public lands, both state and federal.”
Mr. Perry, a Chaves County commissioner, dismisses those objections as partisan noise. Unopposed in the primary, he vows allegiance to the agency’s twin mandates: leasing land to help finance public schools and hospitals — which raised a near-record $2.6 billion last year, mostly from oil and gas companies — and taking care of the land for future generations.
“Regardless if you’re blue, green, from Mars, President Trump or Steve Pearce — if you are against those values, I’m against you,” Mr. Perry said after a tour of public lands scarred by wildfires in the village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico. “It doesn’t matter if you’re from my party.”
Democrats have held every U.S. Senate seat in the state since 2009, and every statewide office since 2020. Moreover, Deb Haaland, the former congresswoman and interior secretary who once oversaw the B.L.M., could make history as the state’s first Native American governor.
But the land position has rotated between Democrats and Republicans since 2003, and Mr. Perry, an assistant land commissioner under the last Republican officeholder, Aubrey Dunn, is viewed by both parties, and people involved in conservation and energy, as formidable.
New Mexico is one of just five states, along with Arkansas, South Dakota, Texas and Washington, with elected land commissioners.
The New Mexico commissioner stewards nine million surface acres — an area bigger than Maryland. The B.L.M. owns 13 million acres in New Mexico and the U.S. Forest Service another nine million.
The state land office may be best known for something done by the outgoing commissioner, Stephanie Garcia Richard, in 2019: the cancellation of decades-old contracts for lands leased by Jeffrey Epstein to buffer dubious activity on his ranch.
Ms. Garcia Richard, the state’s first female commissioner, is no stranger to clashing with the second Trump administration. She rejected an offer in March to buy a seven-acre state parcel abutting Mexico for a “border security” project. Federal officials now intend to use eminent domain; the state is weighing its options.
She also rejected an application from a Texas energy company planning to build Project Jupiter, a data center requiring a 17-mile natural gas pipeline, mostly on federal land, though 0.6 miles would be on state land. The B.L.M. has since expedited the process, without any input from the land office.
Barred from running for a third term, she anticipates her successor could get into even more entanglements, on issues like endangered species and uranium drilling.
“We have quarterly meetings with B.L.M. on so many different issues, and I can’t imagine doing that with a Pearce B.L.M.,” said Ms. Garcia Richard, who had been a leading candidate for lieutenant governor before bowing out because of her husband’s health.
The Democrats who hope to build on her record are Mr. McQueen, 58, a land conservation and property lawyer; Jonas Moya, 35, who headed New Mexico’s farm service agency under the Biden administration; and Juan De Jesus Sanchez III, 34, a former political director for Senator Martin Heinrich.
Mr. Sanchez — a former vice chairman of the state Democratic Party — has led public polls. Descending from a ranching family that traces its New Mexico roots to the 1730s, Mr. Sanchez, who lives south of Albuquerque, once worked as a natural resource specialist and ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers.
“It’s not lines on a map, it’s not dollars on a spreadsheet, it’s the places that I know,” he said while turkey hunting, one of his favorite pastimes, in Cibola National Forest.
Mr. McQueen, who chairs the New Mexico House energy committee, helped increase, at the urging of Ms. Garcia Richard, the royalty rates that oil and gas companies pay for new leases. Known as a no-nonsense lawmaker, he wants to diversify revenues by further developing renewable energy and use trust lands for affordable housing.
Mr. Moya, a fourth-generation cattle rancher, has lagged in fund-raising. A native of tiny Tucumcari, 40 miles from Texas, he pledges to prioritize rural needs.
While the three have some differences, they are all alarmed by the Trump administration’s push to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling around Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico, adjacent to the Navajo Nation.
Conservation groups have said they fear Mr. Pearce could be “selling off and selling out our public lands,” jeopardizing the state’s $3.6 billion recreation economy. They have also highlighted his opposition to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces while he represented the Second Congressional District.
When reached by phone, Mr. Pearce, 78, a Hobbs native who previously worked in the oil business, said he could not comment, citing the confirmation process. He did tell Congress earlier this year, though, that “I don’t visualize selling large swaths of land.”
Mr. Perry, 54, lives in Roswell of U.F.O. fame, not far from the orange flares and petroleum scents of the Permian Basin. Echoing residents who depend on the oil business, he questions Ms. Garcia Richard’s “one-size-fits-all” executive order banning new oil and gas leases within one mile of schools because of health hazards.
“An emotional approach from an activist perspective,” he said.
Mr. Perry, who is now a wildlife and habitat consultant, is most animated when discussing wildfires, wildlife and the watershed.
He has even emblazoned his campaign koozies with a motto — “Working across lines for NM lands” — to reinforce his nonpartisan pitch, and the fact that state parcels are often intertwined with federal and tribal ones in a dizzying checkerboard of ownership.
David W. Chen is a Times reporter focused on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
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