Irene Wildenstein had waited a long time for New Mexico to make the switch to semi-open primary elections, in which independents like her can select the major party ballot of their choice.
“ I’m glad. Finally, after all these years,” the 86-year-old said Tuesday after voting at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds. “ It’s too bad that we hadn’t been able to take advantage of that before.”
Voters registered as independent or “decline to state” joined Democrats and Republicans throughout New Mexico in casting their ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, the state’s first ever semi-open primary and a major step in determining who will hold statewide and local offices come 2027.
More than 343,000 New Mexicans — about 24.3% of the state’s 1.4 million eligible voters — voted in the election, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced Tuesday night.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican
Turnout was slightly higher in Santa Fe County, where about 32% of registered voters headed to the polls, according to County Clerk Katharine Clark’s office.
Many Santa Fe County voters pointed to the highly anticipated governor’s race as the thing that brought them to the polls Tuesday — with some independents celebrating their newfound right to vote in the state’s major party primaries.
Wildenstein, a retired state worker, chose the Republican Party ballot and was happy to cast a vote for gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, a cannabis entrepreneur who surprised her in debates by showcasing his local knowledge “without bashing the other two that he was running against.”
But Wildenstein said the semi-open primary wasn’t very well communicated — she found out by word of mouth. The New Mexican reported last week the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office did not receive legislative appropriations for a large outreach campaign ahead of the election.
“I believe in democracy. I believe in America. … That’s part of one of the freedoms that I have, and I’m going to take advantage of it,” Wildenstein said.
Voter turnout
About 1 in 5 eligible New Mexico voters had cast their ballots by 5 p.m. Tuesday, data from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office shows.
Though low, that’s fairly consistent with previous years. In 2022, the last nonpresidential primary, voter turnout was 25.4%, according to the secretary of state’s website. This year’s numbers surpassed 22.8% primary election voter turnout in 2022.
“More voters turned out during this year’s Primary Election than participated in the 2024 Primary Election — including more than 37,600 independent voters who were able to do so for the first time without changing the political party on their voter registration,” Toulouse Oliver said in a statement. “Our democracy works best and New Mexico benefits overall when more registered voters [are] able to participate in our elections.”
Of the more than 300,000 New Mexicans who voted by 5 p.m. Tuesday, 56% were registered Democrats, 33% registered Republicans and 11% independents.
Nearly half of those voters went to the polls early, the secretary of state’s data shows. Another 40% voted in person Tuesday, and the final 14% voted absentee.
Initial data shows independents are taking advantage of the new semi-open system. Of the 33,545 ballots cast by unaffiliated and minor-party voters by 5 p.m., 24,803 — or 74% — were cast in the Democratic primary and 8,742 in the Republican one.
“We knew that more independents would be voting on Election Day because more New Mexicans vote on Election Day in general,” said Sila Avcil, co-founding executive director of New Mexico Voters First, a nonprofit that promotes fair and equitable elections.
She continued, “When you look at trends, people like to vote like their neighbors, and so we definitely can see that replicated with independent voters in this year’s cycle.”
Avcil said the increase in voter turnout this year made her feel hopeful — though she’d still like to see a “bigger cultural shift” to encourage people to vote.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people feel like their voices don’t matter in the primary. … The primary is the deciding election of who gets to win in the general, and I feel like a lot of people don’t see it that way,” she said.
Sam or Deb?
Cenneth MacDonald, a 74-year-old hair designer and independent voter from Santa Fe County, would have cast a GOP ballot — but “truthfully,” he said, “it’s hard for a Republican to win in this state.”
He chose a Democratic Party ballot instead and picked Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman for governor — a “strong leader,” he said, who could make the state competitive with its neighbors.
For many voters in deep-blue Santa Fe, Tuesday’s primary election boiled down to a simple question: Sam or Deb?
Bregman faced former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who beat him handily, with early results showing she had 73% of the votes. The Associated Press called the race for Haaland just 34 minutes after the polls closed.
Pre-election polls had put Haaland some 20 points ahead of Bregman.
Still, Bregman rallied support from several voters who spoke with The New Mexican at the Rodeo Road polling location; they said they saw a need for big change.
Marquel Aragon, 33, a clerk in the First Judicial District Court, liked Bregman’s affordable housing plans; she’s watched housing prices rise in Santa Fe over recent years and now pays $1,900 for a one-bedroom apartment.
“If I were single and lived by myself, I don’t think I could do it,” she said. “It’s almost impossible.”
And Tammy Sanchez, a 40-year-old Santa Fe Public Schools employee, liked Bregman’s tough-on-juvenile crime approach, a central pillar of his campaign platform.
“I’ve worked for schools for many years, and it’s pretty sad,” she said. “It just seems like everyone has a gun. … It’s like there’s no accountability.”
Bregman’s background as a prosecutor rubbed the opposite way, too.
Like for Jim Sullivan, a 70-year-old Ski Santa Fe retiree who voted for Haaland: “I don’t like DAs being governors,” he said. “They’ve never made good governors. They have their fingers in too many tills.”
Madrid resident Gayle Austin, a 70-year-old independent, used her newfound primary voting power to support Haaland.
“I could go get a Republican ballot and screw ‘em up. Or I could go to the Democrats and I could screw them up,” she thought to herself before voting at the town’s volunteer firefighter station. “Or I could help either of them.”
Ultimately, Austin said, it came back to the governor’s race: “ I want to make sure that Deb Haaland is the Democratic candidate. I don’t really care about anything else on the ballot.”
