{"id":49059,"date":"2026-05-11T13:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=49059"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:05:19","slug":"the-primary-race-for-governor-republican-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/the-primary-race-for-governor-republican-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Primary Race for Governor: Republican Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s\u00a0primary election season and here at New Mexico in Focus, that means candidate interviews \u2014 lots of them.\u00a0

This week, our plan was to interview the three Republicans running to replace Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is termed out. Things were\u00a0going along just duckie\u00a0until Greg Hull\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the former longtime mayor of Rio Rancho and\u00a0frontrunner for his\u00a0party\u2019s\u00a0nomination, according to the\u00a0most recent public polling<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 cancelled on us. (Hull has since rescheduled, and we intend to feature him next week alongside Democratic hopefuls Sam Bregman and Deb Haaland.)\u00a0

The best laid plans, indeed.\u00a0

We did manage\u00a0to sit down with Hull\u2019s two GOP opponents:\u00a0

Host Nash Jones\u00a0spent about 20 minutes working through Doug Turner\u2019s\u00a0platform with the\u00a0small\u00a0business\u00a0owner,\u00a0charter school advocate and 2010 candidate for governor.\u00a0And NMiF Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland, fresh off\u00a0her stellar performance moderating the\u00a0Dukes Up Haaland\/Bregman debate last weekend, caught up\u00a0with\u00a0cannabis CEO and former state\u00a0human services\u00a0secretary Duke Rodriguez. (Be sure to stick around to the end of Gwyneth\u2019s chat with Rodriguez, when he offers a\u00a0shockingly\u00a0blunt assessment\u00a0of\u00a0his opponents \u2014 and\u00a0himself.)\u00a0
And to round out the show, we brought in former Republican Albuquerque city\u00a0councilor and state\u00a0representative\u00a0Greg Payne to help us handicap the GOP primary race.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0grateful to Greg for stepping up\u00a0and helping us fill the show after Hull bailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a quick reminder that, as we bring you these candidate interviews, early voting\u00a0began\u00a0Tuesday at county clerks\u2019 offices.\u00a0It\u2019ll\u00a0expand to more locations May 16, ahead of the June 2 primary election.\u00a0As the state\u2019s first-ever \u201csemi-open primary<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0independent\u00a0or unaffiliated voters can cast\u00a0a\u00a0primary ballot\u00a0without changing their registration.\u00a0\u00a0

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n