Note: All registered New Mexico Democrats may register for the Lt. Governor Forum for the State of New Mexico, on Sunday, July 12, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 PM. The registration form provides an optional field which you may use to submit a question to be considered for the forum. Register here.
See the image at the bottom of this post for more details.
The circumstance
The NM primary election occurred on June 2, 2026. Both major parties chose their candidates for the general election to be held on November 3. After the primary, our candidate for Lieutenant Governor felt she had to withdraw for health reasons. That leaves a vacancy on the general election ballot.
The solution
The Election Code of NM, combined with the Rules of the Democratic Party, provide that NM Democrats elect their candidates to appear on general election ballots. This year for the first time, registered voters who do not declare a party preference may also participate in that process by choosing to vote on either the Republican or Democratic primary ballot.
If whoever is elected for an office in that primary is unable to remain a candidate, there is an affidavit that that person must complete to withdraw formally. Our candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, did in fact submit such an affidavit.
The NM Democratic Party’s State Central Committee is empowered to act on behalf of the whole party when such an event occurs, and time is of the essence prior to an impending general election.
The relevant rules are summarized here.
As that process began, our primary elected candidate for Governor, Deb Haaland, communicated with the members of the SCC her decision to interview, herself, those who by then had expressed willingness to appear on the SCC nominating ballot. Her team sent detailed questionnaires to all aspirants including Harold Pope who had run against Maggie Toulouse Oliver in the primary. Each of them was then interviewed twice, Deb participating in those interviews herself. She concluded that process and chose to announce her endorsement of Stephanie Garcia Richard for Lieutenant Governor.
At this writing, Stephanie and Harold and, I believe, two others remain in the pool of candidates who will appear on the SCC nominating ballot.
On July 12, Harold Pope and Stephanie Garcia Richard will join in a town hall in Albuquerque at an event sponsored by Bernalillo County Ward 11B. The event will be available by Zoom. You may join it by referencing the advertisement that appears at the end of this article.
On July 18, Harold Pope and Stephanie Garcia Richard will both appear in an online forum conducted by the NM State Democratic Party, to answer questions that may have been submitted by SCC members.
Then, on July 25 the SCC will meet virtually to receive the motion that the members will vote electronically over a voting period of four days.
Some mythology
For the last several days, social media have amplified some mythology mixed in with perfectly legitimate differences of opinion. I am not without my own strong views. I am a partisan in favor of Stephanie Garcia Richards instead of Harold Pope for Lieutenant Governor. But, with that in mind, I also think that it helps no one to repeat stuff that is simply incorrect. So, here goes – push back if you like.
Four myths:
- “This is just so much Insider / Outsider machinations.”
The claim here is that Senator Pope is a champion of those not beholden to the NM Democratic establishment that has manipulated a preference for SGR.
I am a member of SCC.
499 other NM Dems are also members of SCC.
Stephanie is a member of SCC.
But so is Harold.
In addition, he is a NM Senator, one of only 27 Dems, a sizable majority in our Senate.
But 27 out of 540,000 NM Dems?
How much more of an insider is there?
Our party is the oldest political party in the whole world’s democracies. It was founded by Thomas Jefferson himself. It started that long journey with strengths and weaknesses. Since then, it has cured some of the weaknesses, preserved some of its strengths and invented new hallmarks of both kinds.
When the adversary is American fascism, I, for one, prefer to postpone the next tranche of fixing our party ‘til the 2026 and 2028 General Elections are behind us. Perpetuating the tired rant that “the Democratic Party sucks” is both too predictable and sadly unhelpful.
- “But Harold did the work!”
- “He campaigned in all counties.”
Stephanie campaigned in all counties in two primaries and two generals.
And then she had administrative authority for trust lands in all 33 counties and went to them numerous times over her 8 years with that responsibility.
He knows the counties and so does Stephanie.
- “He campaigned for Lt. Gov.”
Indeed, he did, in one primary, and when the primary voters, 24% of the eligible electorate, voted for their Lt. Gov. candidate, 80% of them voted for somebody else.
Stephanie, on the other hand, ran statewide four times -– 2 primaries and 2 general elections, for the second-most powerful office in NM behind only the Governor.
In her general elections, she won by 51% against Oil & Gas Republicans who spent $2M against her, and then four years later, by 55% against the same O/G Republicans.
And then she set accomplishment goals that her predecessors had also set, but she achieved them, in spades.
She has been the first Latina to hold the office and its most accomplished.
All of us have the right to be candidates, as candidates we all work really, really, hard, but none of us have the right to win the election.
- “Deb put her thumb on the scale.”
The claim here is that Deb should not have endorsed SGR or anyone in advance of the SCC vote on July 25.
That’s one point of view – here’s another.
In the primary, New Mexicans vote for Governor and Lt. Gov. on separate lines, against all the other candidates for each office.
But in the general election, we vote for one line that shows both the Governor candidate and the Lt. Gov. candidate as nominated by the Democrats.
Under the circumstances, when Deb’s running mate had been elected but then withdrew, Deb had a choice.
- If she let us know who she would prefer running with, she would be sure we all knew that with but weeks to go to the general election.
- If she withheld that information, just as many would have been critical of her lack of transparency as might now be critical of her having “put her thumb on the scale.”
The Executive Suite in the Executive Branch of New Mexico will be on the ballot. Should not our candidate for Governor reveal as much as she can about the government she wants us to elect?
For me, she did the right thing.
Harold has been clear that he also thinks that she exercised the freedom that was hers.
- “Who is the SCC and are they not just the same old establishment, and why do they get any role in this at all?”
In New Mexico the Democratic State Central Committee is 500 people elected in extremely local elections representing all counties and in the bigger counties, all wards or precincts.
In effect, the SCC is the Board of Directors of our state party.
Each county is assigned a number of SCC members which it is to elect every two years in the Spring after the November election. The number is determined on the basis of the number of voters that the particular county managed to turn out to the polls. Santa Fe County has 56 members.
The method for filling a vacancy on the general election ballot that occurs after either the primary election or both the primary and general elections have concluded is to turn to the SCC to act on behalf of the state party.
The current case is one of four recent times in which this process has solved similar dilemmas.
One of those was when Deb Haaland was elected to be the CD1 member of the US House but was then named by President Biden to be Secretary of the Interior. That created a vacancy after the CD1 primary and general elections. Representative Melanie Stansbury was elected by the SCC members of CD1 to become the Democratic nominee in a special election to fill that vacancy and then went on into her current stellar service among us. If the SCC votes to nominate Stephanie or Harold or another candidate next July 25, that person will go on to appear on the November 3 NM general election ballot.
There is nothing weird about the process and it has served us notably well just lately.
Thanks as always for your involvement in our civics, our democracy, in legislation and in elections. American democratic values take great leaps forward immediately after they are as challenged as they are now. So, as tough as it is, we dig in, do the work, and look forward.
It is sheer privilege winning the day with you.
Paul Dirdak
