In a recent appearance on the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Around the Roundhouse podcast with Daniel Chacón, Gregg Hull, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, said that receiving a presidential endorsement would be a “pretty cool thing,” though he has not yet requested one.
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“I know that the president’s unpopular with some people and that he’s popular with others,” Hull told Chacón. In April, two different polls of New Mexico voters found that just 37% said they supported Trump.
Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, won the Republican primary for governor earlier this month but he still faces an uphill challenge in a state where just 31% of registered voters are Republicans and Trump’s approval ratings are polling at record low numbers, just 37%, in two different polls taken in April.
With Trump’s approval ratings so low, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has been pushing to exploit connections between the President and Hull. “Gregg Hull won’t listen to the challenges New Mexicans are facing and can’t be taken seriously as a candidate in New Mexico if he is willing to welcome the support of Donald Trump,” said Democratic Party of New Mexico spokesperson Daniel Garcia. “New Mexicans deserve a governor who will fight to lower costs, strengthen our schools, expand access to health care, and keep communities safe—not a candidate who sees an endorsement from Donald Trump as a ‘pretty cool thing.’”