Trump expresses optimism over long shot win in NM during Albuquerque campaign rally

Despite trailing in state polls and having lost twice in New Mexico, Donald Trump expressed confidence on Thursday that Hispanic voters could help deliver him an unlikely victory in the state when votes are counted next week.

“We almost won it twice, and I believe we won it twice,” Trump said to an estimated crowd of 7,000 people who gathered at a private hangar near the Albuquerque International Sunport for the former president’s campaign rally.

Trump touched down in his private airplane just after noon and spoke for nearly 90 minutes before departing for another campaign stop in Nevada.

He spent much of his speech criticizing his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, whom he described as a “total stiff,” and voicing concerns about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

But Trump also touted his growing support levels among Hispanic voters, saying “Hispanics love Trump.”

A recent Journal poll found 41% of Hispanic voters surveyed in New Mexico expressing support for the former president. That support level was above what most Republican candidates have received in recent New Mexico statewide elections, even though most Hispanic voters surveyed still supported Harris.

At one point during his speech, Trump asked the crowd whether they preferred the term “Latino” or “Hispanic” — most, by their applause, appeared to prefer the latter — and described his visit to New Mexico as “good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham accused Trump after his Thursday rally of “using” New Mexico to bolster his ego and political ambitions.

“To just admit he was only here as a prop I thought was so disrespectful,” Lujan Grisham told the Journal.

She also blasted Trump’s election victory claims, as President Joe Biden defeated then-incumbent Trump in New Mexico by 11 percentage points — or roughly 100,000 votes — in 2020.

“It is really outrageous that he continues to lie to the folks of New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said.

Trump accused Harris of speaking with “words all over the place,” but at times rambled during his own speech, such as commenting on how many F-35 fighter jets he’s bought when a jet flew by — “personally, I like the F-22 the best,” he added — and crediting his administration with defeating the Islamic State group after talking about rebuilding the military.

He also repeatedly said “the fake news” doesn’t depict his rallies or policies accurately, telling Thursday’s rallygoers to “look at this group” of media members standing in a sectioned-off area of the crowd.

The Trump rally also provided a platform to several New Mexico Republicans running in this year’s general election, as U.S. Senate candidate Nella Domenici and 2nd Congressional District candidate Yvette Herrell both spoke at the event.

Herrell, who is locked in a hotly contested race with Democrat Gabe Vasquez, said that Republicans are going to “close the southern border once and for all.”

Domenici, for her part, called for a “new day” in New Mexico.

“It’s time to bring back Donald Trump and it’s time to bring back a Domenici,” she said, referring to her late father, former longtime U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici.

Domenici, who up until recently had refused to say whether she planned to vote for Trump, told the Journal after Thursday’s rally she agreed with much of the former president’s message.

“The key message I agree with is we don’t have to be in decline,” she said in an interview.

‘Drill, baby, drill’

At one point during his speech, Trump vowed to end “(former President Barack) Obama’s war on American energy” and alleged that Harris would destroy more than 90,000 oil and gas jobs in New Mexico by banning fracking.

“If Kamala is elected, New Mexico’s economy would be reduced to rubble,” Trump said.

Harris has maintained on the campaign trail she would not ban fracking, though she voiced support for such a move while running for president in 2019.

Trump also said Harris’ policies would destroy 35% of New Mexico’s budget, which is roughly the percentage of revenue provided by taxes and royalties on the oil and gas industries.

But New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, described that claim as another lie from Trump.

“The fact of the matter is that New Mexico is an oil and gas-producing state, and I’m also proud that we have some of the most pro-climate statutes in the entire country,” Martínez told the Journal. “We can do both.”

New Mexico has seen its revenue levels surge over the past three-plus years, due largely to a boom in oil production in the Permian Basin. The state is now the second-largest oil producer in the nation — behind only Texas — and New Mexico oil drove nearly half of the United States’ total oil production growth last year, according to legislative data.

Trump also said he would end Harris’ 100% electric vehicle mandate if elected. There is currently no existing EV mandate under Biden and it remains largely unclear what Harris’ plans around EVs are, though she’s supported Biden’s increasingly tough clean vehicle regulations.

Trump also complained about high inflation rates and the state of the economy, saying a Trump administration would end “the inflation nightmare immediately and create a record jobs boom.”

“You know how we’re going to get them down? We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said, evoking cheers from the crowd.

Immigration claims

Trump claimed New Mexico has seen millions of people come across its section of the southern border, including 10,000 convicted criminals and thousands of undocumented immigrant gang members.

In the 2024 fiscal year, U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.5 million migrant encounters in the Southwest, compared with 2 million encounters in the previous fiscal year. Additionally, Border Patrol reported 523 gang-affiliated apprehensions nationwide in the 2024 budget year.

“One of the biggest reasons we will win this state is that you have among the worst border problems of any state in America, and I am the only one that knows how to fix it,” he said.

Trump specifically referenced the 2021 case of an “illegal alien criminal” convicted of murder in Las Cruces, which happened when he was out on an unsecured bond — Joel Arciniega-Saenz. However, Arciniega-Saenz’s place of birth was the U.S., according to the Las Cruces Sun News.

Trump’s visit marked the first New Mexico campaign stop by either of the leading presidential candidates in this year’s election cycle.

However, Lujan Grisham pointed out Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz recently visited the Navajo Nation.

Trump, who previously held two campaign stops in Albuquerque in 2016 and one in Rio Rancho in 2019, said some of his campaign staffers had counseled him not to visit the state this year.

“They all said don’t come. I said, why? ‘You can’t win New Mexico,’” Trump said. “I said, ‘Look, your votes are rigged. We can win New Mexico.’”