When the Secretary of State’s Office closed on the deadline day for candidates to qualify for 2026 elections, Republicans had qualified at least one candidate in most competitive races except one very big one: U.S. Senate.
Now Republicans are scrambling to qualify at least one candidate as a write-in for the June primary, ensuring that that candidate will be automatically placed on the general election ballot in November to avoid an inter-party fight to name a candidate to a ballot vacancy late in the game.
Ben Ray Luján, first elected in 2020 and running for his first re-election as a Democrat with a record of voting against President Donald Trump 93% of the time, should be a top-tier target for Republicans looking to save or pickup seats to protect their majority in the U.S. Senate, even in a state that leans Democratic.
At least one Republican tried to make the primary ballot the traditional way. Christopher J. Vanden Heuvel launched a low-budget campaign and failed to make the ballot, leaving Republicans without a candidate in the primary.
When state Republicans met in Ruidoso this past weekend, State Chair Amy Barela encouraged members to rally behind the write-in campaign of Larry “Lead” Marker of Roswell who needs 2,351 qualified Republican signatures by March 17th to be eligible for write-in votes. If he succeeds and secures at least one write-in, he will be the Republican nominee in November.
Who is Larry “Lead” Marker?
He is a former Libertarian Party write-in for land commissioner in 2022 and Republican candidate for state senate in 2024. He lost both races by big margins.
With Marker’s current write-in campaign officially kicking just a few weeks ago, information is scarce about his 2026 strategy.
But during his 2022 campaign, he proudly shared photos on social media of him posing at the Concerned Citizens of New Mexico Convention with Steve Bannon, a Trump advisor and right-wing media influencer who has advocated for using the military to take over elections, and Mike Lindell, the right-wing conspiracy theorist and CEO of the “My Pillow” company. The event explored conspiracy theories relating to election integrity in 2020 which have been widely debunked.
In a biography accessed from archives of his 2022 campaign website, Marker described his alignment with patriot movement ideologies: “The arbitrary and capricious laws, policies and over-regulation that is common in all areas of our state government are what prompted Marker to align himself with multiple conservative American patriot grass roots movements and groups while he was and is pursuing numerous legal causes of action.”
According to his bio, “Larry Marker is dedicated to the preservation of the American way of life. His Christian faith, patriotism, work ethic and intrepid nature are an inseparable part of who and what he is.”
Under state election law, the Secretary of State is required to announce qualified write-in candidates by March 24.