By Hannah Grover
Deb Haaland, a former Interior secretary and one of the Democratic Party candidates for governor, targeted actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration during a campaign speech Thursday evening in Tijeras.
While the primary elections are not until next summer, gubernatorial candidates vying for their party’s ticket are focused on getting their message across to potential voters. This coming election will also have partially open primaries, meaning voters who are not affiliated with any of the political parties will have the opportunity to vote in the primary elections. The 2026 election will be the first election under the new law that opened the primaries to the decline-to-state voters.
Haaland focused her message on attacking actions Trump has taken and calling on Democrats to turn out to vote in 2026.
“You pick up the newspaper every day, right? And it’s hard to read the headlines,” she said.
Haaland said people are feeling discouraged about the direction the country is going under Trump’s administration.
She spoke about how people sometimes say they will leave the country after presidents from opposing parties win elections. Haaland said she is not going to go anywhere and that New Mexico is her home.
“Leaders come and go. And this leader is going to go,” she said and noted that Trump cannot be reelected to another term as president.
Haaland, who also served as a congresswoman, criticized the Republican-led budget bill known as the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which includes cuts in areas like Medicaid spending.
Haaland fielded questions about education and environmental protection. She said the state will have to be ready to sue the federal government as the Trump administration takes actions to roll back environmental protections or other programs.
“States will have to step up. They’ll have to sue President Trump. They’ll have to sue the federal government for everything,” she said.
She should be on public TV every time she lectures us about her beliefs.