Bernalillo D.A. running for governor holds town hall in Rio Rancho

RIO RANCHO — “Why do you want to run for governor?” is one question Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said he gets asked a lot.

To him, it’s a fair question, and one he tried to answer during Tuesday’s town hall meeting in Rio Rancho.

Inside a small room at the Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education, Bregman explained that he’s had “the blessing” of raising a family in Albuquerque and had “a hell of a career” in public life that includes sitting on the Albuquerque City Council.

“As I look back and look forward, I don’t think New Mexico has really ever lived up to its potential,” Bregman said, “and I want to see New Mexico live up to its potential.”


His comments came during a stop on his “Common Sense Over Chaos” tour, allowing him to hear from people and share policy solutions he’d pursue if elected governor in 2026.

Bregman even touched on the name of the tour and its significance during his stop in Rio Rancho.

“I don’t care about your politics as much as I think everybody can agree: there is chaos coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Bregman said, noting the impacts of the recent government shutdown and the policies of President Donald Trump.

Bregman used the town hall to focus on four issues: crime, education, health care and economic development.

Policy proposals for those issues and others can be found in Bregman’s guiding campaign document, “Blueprint for New Mexico,” which his top opponent, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, claimed is plagiarized, according to a previous news report from The Albuquerque Journal. In an interview following the Rio Rancho town hall, Bregman stood by his campaign’s comments, pointing to a disclaimer on his campaign’s website.

During his town hall, Bregman said he would like to update the New Mexico children’s code, which has not been revised since 1993. Bregman said the code could be rewritten to toughen up on juveniles who commit crimes.

“We need to build in revisions (to show) that there are consequences,” Bregman said, adding it should be coupled with behavioral health and family intervention.

He is worried about the number of doctors leaving the state and people’s access to in-state health care because they can’t afford to pay their medical bills. One remedy, he said, is medical malpractice reform.

“One of the first things I’ll do is put trial lawyers, doctors, hospital administrators and insurance companies in a room and lock the door and tell them to figure out some solutions on this,” Bregman said. “Maybe we’ll check on them in a couple of days and see if they made any progress.”

He noted that New Mexico consistently ranks at or near the bottom of the country in terms of education and asked everyone attending the town hall to raise their hand if they thought children today have the same shot at “the American dream” as them.

“I don’t see one hand going up. Doesn’t that say so much to it all?” Bregman said. “So what are we going to do about it?”

He spoke of the need for a “meaningful education” in which students gain reading and math proficiency and called on the state to help more children become proficient in those subjects by the third grade. Bregman also said he wants to see more accountability from school districts on improving and reporting student outcomes.

Not every child will go to or graduate from college, said Bregman, who wants to promote career-ready education. He noted two out of three of his children dropped out of college. One of them is a car salesman, and the other is Alex Bregman, an athlete who played for the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox.

“Different strokes for different folks,” Bregman said. “There are young adults whose career path may be the trades.”

He called economic development “extremely important” and said he would like to see the state become the “energy capital of the world” with clean energy sources on all fronts.

“We don’t have the capacity or the transmission right now,” Bregman said. “But we need to build that out — and that takes some time.”