Democrats nominate Lujan Grisham for New Mexico governor

State law prevents Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation’s first Latina governor, from seeking a consecutive third term.

The next governor of New Mexico will take over a state with lagging employment opportunities and a troubled public education system that trails most of the nation in student academic achievement.

Concerns about public safety and effective policing in the state’s city largest city, Albuquerque, have stoked an impassioned political debate at the state capitol and a protracted standoff. The Democratic-led Legislature resisted Martinez’s calls to address the problem with tougher punishments for violent crime and severe child abuse.

Taxe cuts and austere budgeting during Martinez’s two terms in office have trimmed the ranks of state government workers by thousands without restoring a robust economy. Candidates for both parties are searching for new recipes to reduce the second-highest unemployment rate in the country.

New Mexico is one of 33 governor’s offices held by Republicans nationwide, and 26 of those are up for election this year. In eight of those states, including New Mexico, Hillary Clinton won the presidential vote over Trump in 2016.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 15 percentage points statewide, and New Mexico hasn’t elected back-to-back Republican administrations since the 1920s.

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Morgan Lee, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Democrats nominate Lujan Grisham for New Mexico governor

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