Opinion: Republicans need to distance selves from Trump

If New Mexico Republicans want to regain any sort of footing for power in this state, they’d better start distancing themselves from former President Donald Trump in a hurry.

I say this for a number of reasons, and not just because I’m mostly liberal, which makes consecutives want to “own” me, which they’ve yet to succeed at doing.

The fact is, the Republicans own very little in this state’s body politic — they’re a deep minority in both legislative chambers, they lost every executive position race there is in 2018 and 2022, and their “ownership” in the state judiciary is practically nonexistent except for the conservative eastern side of the state.

Even New Mexico’s congressional delegation lacks a Republican, thanks to Gabe Vasquez’s win over Yvette Herrell last year. (Herrell has already declared that she’ll run, for a fourth time, for the Second Congressional District seat she lost last year.)

The last time the GOP had any semblance of strength in this state was with Gov. Susana Martinez, who first won election in 2010. During her eight years in office, she enjoyed two years with a GOP majority in the state House, but that’s about it. When she was term-limited out of office in 2018, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham thumped the GOP’s Steve Pearce, and the Dems have been in full control ever since.

There are myriad reasons why New Mexicans lean Democrat. One reason, in my opinion, is cultural — most of our citizens are open, even accepting, of others’ lifestyles and behaviors. Even if we don’t like someone for their differences, we tend to “live and let live” — as long as no one is getting hurt. Here in the Land of Enchantment, most of us value respect over conformity.

I think that bleeds over into New Mexico politics; we disagree but still respect each other.

Enter Donald Trump, the antithesis of respect.

And now he appears to be the antithesis of national security. Last week’s federal indictment laid out a long list of charges, 38 in all.

My source for the above information is directly from the indictment itself, readily available in 49 pages posted online. Even the discredited Fox News posted the document; feel free to read it for yourself.

Funny, I didn’t expect this investigation to be the one to send Trump to jail — where he should certainly go if convicted, and if indeed “no one is above the law.”

I thought his downfall would be his efforts to steal “11,780 votes” in Georgia, or his obvious role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, since we all heard what he said and did. But those bombs haven’t fallen yet.

If New Mexico’s Republicans could somehow distance themselves from Trump in 2024, maybe they’d have a shot at winning here. If not, expect another rout for the Democrats, up and down ballot.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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