Gregg Hull, who served three terms as mayor of a fast-growing Albuquerque suburb, won the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico on Tuesday, The Associated Press said.
He advanced to a general election where he will try to break Democrats’ iron grip on state leadership. His opponent, Deb Haaland, a former congresswoman and Interior secretary, is vying to make history as the first Native American woman governor.
Mr. Hull was first elected mayor of Rio Rancho in 2014, and he presided over a period of rapid development that saw tens of thousands of new residents move into the city, which now has about 115,000 people. He left office in May after twice winning re-election.
Mr. Hull emerged from a wide-open Republican race that was largely overshadowed by an internecine rift in the party that led to the court-ordered ouster of the New Mexico G.O.P. chairwoman, Amy Barela, less than a week before primary Election Day. The infighting underscored how far the party has fallen in the less than a decade since a Republican governor, Susana Martinez, left office after her second term.
Since then, New Mexico has moved steadily to the left. No Republican holds statewide office, and the winner of the Democratic primary for governor is widely expected to prevail in November.
But Mr. Hull is hoping that the persistence of the state’s most serious challenges — its education system is one of the worst-performing in the nation and its rate of violent crime is among the country’s highest — will persuade voters to give him a chance.
“It is the definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over and over and over again and expecting a different result,” Mr. Hull said at a recent Republican primary debate. “It is time to change course.”
During the campaign, Mr. Hull vowed to avoid attacking his fellow Republican opponents, a contrast with the Democratic candidates, Deb Haaland, a former congresswoman and Interior secretary, and Sam Bregman, Bernalillo County’s district attorney. The Democrats spent months sniping at each other in strikingly personal terms.
Mr. Hull’s low-key approach appeared to allow Doug Turner, the founder of a New Mexico-based communications firm, to make a late push, closing Mr. Hull’s wide lead in limited public polling. Mr. Turner ultimately finished second. Duke Rodriguez, the chief executive of a cannabis company, who, like Mr. Turner, once worked with former Gov. Gary Johnson, came in third.
Even as all three Republicans criticized the state’s Democratic leaders, they chose their words more carefully when it came to President Trump. When asked whether he would accept an endorsement from Mr. Trump, Mr. Hull hedged, saying he would “consider” it but that he was focused on “serving New Mexicans.”
Mr. Hull, who is vying to succeed Michelle Lujan Grisham, a term-limited Democrat, has pitched himself as an experienced leader who could bring the type of economic growth Rio Rancho experienced to the rest of the state.
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
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