State Sen. David Gallegos of Eunice won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in the June 2 Primary Election.
That means he will be paired with former Rio Rancho mayor and GOP gubernatorial nominee Gregg Hull.
“We put out a couple of videos explaining that I am a 14th-generation New Mexican born in Holman and in looking at the overall we did really well up north,” said Gallegos, who beat Albuquerqueans Aubrey Blair Dunn and Manny Lardizabal by 50 percent to 38 and 12 percent in the June 2 party primary.
Hull and Gallegos will now face Democratic nominees Deb Haaland and Maggie Toulouse Oliver in the Nov. 3 general election.
“Sandoval and Otero counties didn’t do well, but in the overall our side of the state, Central New Mexico and Northern New Mexico were pretty good to me,” Gallegos said. “It’s being that I’ve got a Hispanic last name that the Northern New Mexico corridors can be very beneficial and in talking to Hull he’s looking for some balance.
“I think the biggest thing is that I’ve been in the legislature long enough to understand the process and the Southeast is very important because of the oil and gas sector. We did really well in Chaves, Eddy and Lea. Those benefited me quite a bit.”
But Gallegos said Hull had a tough time raising money and the Republicans are $10 million behind Haaland and Oliver in that area.
“We have to think through how we do this in order to get the funding we need,” he said. “The oil and gas industry put a lot of money into Sam Bregman (Haaland’s primary opponent) so we’re hoping to entice them to support us as we go forward.
“They’re putting in the money to keep New Mexico as bad as it is, but we need to change New Mexico and that’s going to take time, effort and money.”
Gallegos said he and Hull have an advantage with the issues.
“Haaland and Oliver have had enough negatives in their careers and Bregman did a good job of showing how inept Haaland is by publicizing some of the speeches she made and the questions in Congress when she didn’t have numbers, facts or figures on her being Secretary of the Interior,” Gallegos said.
“It really made her look bad, but the hope for their side is that she’s a puppet and they’ll be able to pull her strings. I don’t know if someone will be managing her, but she’s not capable of making those kind of long-term decisions for the state.”
Gallegos said New Mexico has developed a public safety crisis because the Democrats only want to protect criminals and their attorneys.
Regarding education and the state’s being ranked 50th nationally, he hopes to have Hull meet with the superintendent in Lovington to learn how the public schools can be improved.
“It’s more about the accountability process and the testing we do and I think she’d be a really good asset for Hull, but we’re always going to be looking at what we have to do to change education. I think a large part of it is what we’re doing to our people as far as taxes,” Gallegos said.
“There are key people around the state that we need to start asking for help so we can build our team, win and be ready to govern and change this state.”