Centrist Bregman enters Democratic N.M. governor’s primary against Haaland

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman entered the New Mexico governor’s race Thursday, denouncing the influence of “MAGA power brokers” and the “radical left” — and setting up a competitive Democratic primary against former Interior Department secretary Deb Haaland in a state where Republicans made significant inroads in last year’s elections.

In his announcement video, first obtained by The Washington Post, Bregman rides across the New Mexico mesa on horseback in a black cowboy hat, charging that the state is under attack by “Elon Musk, his puppet Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington” at a time when Democrats in Washington have been “weak, ineffective and complicit with all this madness.”

“It’s the intolerance of the radical left that has divided our party at a time when we need everyone to unite in the fight against Trump,” Bregman, 61, says in the video. “Whether it’s them or the MAGA [Make America great again] extremists, they’ve all hijacked our politics, leaving everyday New Mexicans in the dust. To be blunt, people are tired of this garbage.”

As Bregman argues that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party has gone too far left on certain criminal justice and energy issues, the Democratic primary between Bregman and Haaland, to be held in June 2026, could become a microcosm of the broader debate among Democrats about the direction of their party.

After steep losses to Republicans in November, some Democrats argue that the party did not do enough excite liberal voters. Others say that the Democratic Party has alienated moderates and independents by moving too far left, particularly on cultural issues. While Joe Biden won New Mexico in his 2020 race against Trump by nearly 11 points, Vice President Kamala Harris won the minority-majority state by only six points — and some Democrats were alarmed by the drift of both Hispanic and working-class voters to the GOP.

Bregman argues that he offers a unique perspective because of his record as district attorney and as a litigator over nearly three decades who has focused on reducing crime in New Mexico, which has the highest rate of violent crime in the nation. Democratic Gov. Lujan Grisham — who is close to Haaland but appointed Bregman as Second Judicial District attorney in 2023 — has sparred with Democrats in her state as she has pushed for changes that would compel mentally ill people or those struggling with addiction to commit to treatment. On Tuesday, Grisham announced that she was calling up the New Mexico National Guard to help fight crime as she declared a state of emergency in Albuquerque.

Haaland promised to be fierce in her announcement video in February: “New Mexico is rich in tradition and spirit, rich in natural resources, so why can’t our families pay our bills? Crime, poverty, homelessness, addiction. They will keep pulling us down if we do the same things and expect a different result,” she said.

Bregman declined to detail his specific policy differences with Haaland during an interview Wednesday, calling her a “fine person” who has “overcome a lot of adversity in her life.” But he argued that Trump and Republicans made inroads in 2024 because Democrats nationally “lost our course” by getting caught up in cultural issues. Too many voters were alienated, he said, by the fact that the party has been “exclusive” rather than “inclusive” of people with diverging opinions.

“We’re too focused on cultural litmus test issues, instead of what people truly care about when they’re at the kitchen table eating breakfast or dinner with their family — issues like crime, education, health care and economic opportunity,” Bregman said. “That’s what’s important to people in the state, and if they’re not hearing that message loud and clear from someone who wants to be a leader, then they’re willing to sit on the sidelines or vote for the other.”

Trump’s “chaos,” he said, “is affecting real lives, real people here in New Mexico. So I do believe that there is an opportunity to bring back people into the fold.”

But to do that, Bregman said, the party has to break free of the radical left’s “purity litmus tests.” He points to Democrats in his state who argue that New Mexico should block all oil and gas exploration, even though its Land Grant Permanent Fund — which draws revenue from leases and royalties produced by nonrenewable natural resources like oil and gas — provides more than $1 billion in funding annually for public schools, universities and other beneficiaries. He noted that he faced blowback from his party when he sought changes to the state’s juvenile justice code to toughen penalties for young offenders, arguing that if they don’t have consequences early, many will end up spending decades in the corrections system.

“The radical left of the legislature wouldn’t compromise or even discuss in any real robust way the idea of reforming our criminal code,” he said. “Instead, we got nothing out of them, and nothing was done.”

Haaland made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018 (alongside Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas). The 64-year-old enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe broke another historic barrier when she became the first Native American interior secretary during the Biden administration. But while she was heralded by her backers as a fighter for environmental justice — particularly in trying to address the disproportionate impact of dirty air and water on low-income and minority communities — her confirmation was opposed by Republicans who criticized her liberal voting record in Congress.

Haaland faced criticism from Republicans during her confirmation process in the Senate, in part because of her past opposition to new leases for drilling oil and gas on federal land. Republicans like Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who were supportive of oil and gas development, castigated Haaland at the time as a “radical,” citing her support of the Green New Deal and opposition to the Keystone oil pipeline.

But ultimately, she was backed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee from an oil-rich state, who said she had struggled to reconcile “a historic nomination” with her concerns about Haaland’s “opposition to resource development on public lands.” While Haaland was serving as interior secretary, the Biden administration increased the cost of drilling on federal lands but also angered environmentalists by approving more drilling permits on public lands than the Trump administration had in his first year in office.

In an interview last month during a West Coast swing where she addressed a gathering organized by the abortion rights group Emily’s List, which has endorsed her, Haaland said she was deeply concerned about the impact that Trump’s policies could have on rural health care, veterans and Medicaid recipients in her state. The consequences of the administration’s cuts could produce a backlash, she said.

“When you do a wholesale firing of thousands of people in one agency after the next, and you’re not looking at names or titles or occupations, you’re going to fire people who voted for you,” she said. “I just don’t see how that doesn’t happen. And so perhaps those people will have a different idea the next time about who they support and what policies they support.”