By Pat Davis, The Paper & New Mexico Political Report – Just 12 hours after Deb Haaland secured her historic nomination for governor in the Democratic primary, she called me to share her first reactions to winning, still being underestimated after so many historic firsts and how she sees the next phase of the campaign against former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, the new Republican nominee, playing out over the next six months.
Portions of this interview were edited for brevity but none of Haaland’s words or responses were changed.
The interview.
Pat Davis: You mentioned before we got started that people underestimated you. Would you mind expanding on that for the record?
Deb Haaland: When I ran for Congress, and you remember this, there were so many people who said I couldn’t, I wasn’t gonna make it out of the primary. I couldn’t raise the money, I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do that…
[This time] my opponent, he got a few tribal endorsements, and then everyone was saying, “Oh, my gosh, she doesn’t have the tribal support.” It was just interesting how everybody seemed like I just didn’t have what it took, right? We just stuck to our plan. We worked hard. My staff and my entire campaign team, we just work hard. I mean, hard work still means something in our state, in our country, and I’m really proud of all the effort that my staff put in and activating all our volunteers and all of that.
Sometimes I do feel like people underestimate me. But I just work hard. That’s kind of what, I think that’s what matters.
PD: How do you foresee where this is going in terms of campaigning against Gregg Hull? Preview that race for us, if you would.
DH: There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of Republican money will stream into the state. You know, Donald Trump thinks he can win New Mexico every election year as evidenced by his many trips here and we recognize that for part of this election we’ll be running against Donald Trump, quite frankly. But because New Mexico’s a blue state, and we recognize how important Democratic governors are across the country.
Photo by Roberto E. Rosales for the Paper Credit: The Paper
We’re flipping tradition here, right? Every 8 years, this seat is flipped to a Republican [Gary Johnson to Bill Richardson to Susana Martinez to Michelle Lujan Grisham], and so we recognize the gravity of the election year that we’re in, and that’s why raising money, having the resources we need to reach voters where they are in every single county, village, town, community across New Mexico will be incredibly important.
And I’m not one to ever take anything for granted. I think Gregg Hull is a formidable opponent. He has run one of the largest cities in New Mexico. He’s had a lot of accomplishments as the mayor of Rio Rancho. He won his primary. So, we know that, regardless of anything that happens on a national level, regardless of Donald Trump, we are focused on New Mexico issues. We are focused on kids reading sooner and having a strong public school system. We focused on New Mexicans having healthcare, people feeling safe in their neighborhoods, and quite frankly, the affordability issue that I talk so much about, that, I mean, that everyone talks about…
For the record, we outraised every single one of my opponents right here in New Mexico. So we have more grassroots donations and more contributions from more New Mexicans than any one of my opponents did in this primary race. So, we’ll continue to activate those small dollar donors, our grassroots donors, our average contribution, is $24. We’re proud of that fact. A grassroots campaign means that more people are participating, and I’m grateful and proud to have that.
PD: Have you talked to Sam yet? How do you think that relationship’s going to be going forward?
DH: Yeah, he called last night and congratulated me on my win. You know, we’ll just, um, we’ll just see where that goes. As I mentioned in my remarks last night, I have invited every single one of his supporters to join our campaign. Everyone is welcome to join our campaign. We’re gonna fight for every single new Mexican, regardless. Let’s go.
PD: Are you gonna take a day off to recharge before you get going again?
DH: Yeah, I might, yeah, I have a little time off tomorrow.
PD: What else do you want to leave voters with today before the next campaign really gets going?
DH: I mean, look, Pat, I, this is how I got my start. Native Americans couldn’t vote in our state until 1948. Their communities couldn’t vote when everyone else could. And I am so cognizant of that here in New Mexico, so that’s why I’ve been so adamant about voter turnout, and showing up where we’re showing up, meeting voters where they are, and all of that kind of stuff. It’s like, we have work to do, and we’re going to do it.
PD: You mentioned people have underestimated you but you took some flack for not participating in one-on-one debates. What is your strategy for confronting Gregg Hull head on and are you going to commit to doing more traditional debates in the general as things sort of get focused?
DH: Yes. We’ll do some debates. In this primary election, I felt like one debate was enough. And that’s what we did… We just felt our time was better spent traveling the state and talking to voters across New Mexico. I will be happy to debate Mayor Hull.