Michael Perry, a retired game warden, won the Republican nomination Tuesday for New Mexico’s powerful land commissioner job, according to The Associated Press.
As the steward of nine million surface acres, the commissioner is responsible for protecting the land for future generations, and for generating revenues to help finance public schools and hospitals, mostly through oil and gas leases. The race to succeed the outgoing commissioner, Stephanie Garcia Richard, a Democrat, has attracted outsized attention because Steve Pearce, who was recently confirmed as President Trump’s director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, is expected to champion public lands for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, logging and livestock grazing.
The next commissioner could play a vital role in either resisting or accelerating the Trump administration’s agenda, and its impact on a state renowned for its breathtaking landscapes and cultural riches. And because Mr. Pearce is a New Mexican, Democrats have argued he would have particular sway over the state should a Republican be elected land commissioner in November.
Unopposed in the primary, Mr. Perry, 54, will now take on the winner of a three-way Democratic primary in November.
Democrats have held every U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico since 2009, and every statewide office since 2020. While Mr. Perry served as an assistant land commissioner under the last Republican officeholder, he has vowed to be nonpartisan and collaborative.
David W. Chen is a Times reporter focused on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
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