Mark Ronchetti parlayed his high name recognition and hefty campaign war chest into a big victory over four Republican challengers to become the GOP’s nominee for governor of New Mexico.
The former Albuquerque television personality narrowly lost a bid for US Senate in 2020—a race that gained him statewide notoriety.
The advantages helped Ronchetti garner 58 percent of the vote in June 8’s Republican primary, while none of his lesser-known opponents broke out of the mid or low-teens.
The Albuquerque Journal called the race for Ronchetti around 8 p.m. on election night.
In a victory speech before a gathering of his supporters at the Marriott Hotel in Albuquerque, Ronchetti did his best to patch up the wounds that the oft-times bare-knuckled primary campaign may have caused in Republican ranks.
Then he turned his rhetorical guns on his general election opponent, incumbent Democrat Governor Lujan Grisham.
“Grisham’s agenda follows right along with the Biden agenda. The state government is 40 percent bigger today than when she took office four years ago, while New Mexico has lost 40 percent of its small businesses,” he said.
Ronchetti also accused Grisham of working to model New Mexico after California.
He told the crowd that the whole campaign would come down to one question, “Is New Mexico headed in the right direction?”
Governor Grisham did not respond to a request for comment.
One Democrat primary voter from Santa Fe said of Grisham, “I went to school with her. I like her and think she has a lot of experience.
“I believe she is doing a good job for New Mexico. But we have to be very careful what we say about politics around here because people have such strong feelings both ways,” he said.
A Ronchetti supporter named Kenny told The Epoch Times in the hotel parking lot after the victory party, “I strongly back Mark Ronchetti because he is a down-to-earth guy who embraces family values. He is pro-freedom, pro-education, and pro-business.”
Joining Ronchetti at the top of the Republican ticket is his running mate Anthony Thornton.
Thornton captured the nomination for lieutenant governor by defeating Peggy Muller-Aragon, thus becoming the first black American ever nominated for lieutenant governor in the history of New Mexico.
Thornton will face incumbent Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales, a Democrat, this fall.
In a press release following his primary win, Thornton said, “This is truly an unprecedented and incredible victory for the conservative cause. Ultimately, the real fight is to save New Mexico from the forces of progressivism that seek to destroy our state.”
State GOP chairman Steve Pearce believes the nomination of Thornton will go a long way to dispel the lie that “Republicans hate minorities.”
Pearce told The Epoch Times, “Our strong slate of Republican candidates is well-qualified and prepared to offer a clear contrast to the out-of-touch liberal policies represented by their Democrat opponents.”
In the Democrat primary, Gabriel Vasquez was an easy winner over Darshan Patel in the battle to become the party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in the 2nd District.
Vasquez will try to unseat incumbent Republican congresswoman Yvette Herrell in November.
Herrell had no opposition in the Republican primary.
Incumbent Democrat congresswoman Melanie Stansbury faced no primary opponent in northern New Mexico’s 1st District.
Stansbury will be challenged this fall by Republican Michelle Garcia Holmes.
Running on the issues of crime, borders, and inflation, Holmes defeated fellow Republican Louis Sanchez.
Voters in the 1st District lean Democrat by about 10 percentage points, meaning Holmes is facing an uphill battle this fall.
Congresswoman Teresa Fernandez, a Democrat incumbent representing the 3rd District, had no primary opposition, but she took time June 7 to encourage a small group of activists who came to a polling place in Santa Fe to drum up last-minute support for their favorite candidates for local office.
Fernandez told The Epoch Times, “We are here because we love democracy and want to encourage people to vote. We want to make it easy for more people to vote.”
In the hard-fought campaign for the Democrat nomination for state attorney general, two-term Albuquerque District Attorney Raul Torrez defeated State Auditor Brian Colon 53 to 46 percent.
Of New Mexico’s 1 million registered voters, only 260,000 turned out to vote on June 8.
A little over half voted in person on election day, with just over 100,000 taking the opportunity to vote early in person.
More than 20,000 New Mexicans cast absentee ballots.
