Juan De Jesus Sanchez III, a former political director for Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday for the state’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. But this year’s 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.
Mr. Sanchez, 34, highlighted his experience with the Army Corps of Engineers in defeating State Representative Matthew McQueen, a land conservation and property lawyer, and Jonas Moya, a cattle rancher who headed New Mexico’s farm service agency under the Biden administration.
Mr. Sanchez will now face the Republican nominee, Michael Perry, a retired game warden, in November.
Democrats have held every U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico since 2009, and every statewide office since 2020. But the land position has rotated between Democrats and Republicans since 2003, and Mr. Perry, an assistant land commissioner under the last Republican officeholder, is viewed by both parties, and people involved in conservation and energy, as formidable.
David W. Chen is a Times reporter focused on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
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