Albuquerque mayor planning to run for a third term

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller confirmed to KOAT-TV this week that he plans to run for a third term in 2025, something he’s been saying he would likely do for over a year. But the city’s 31st mayor will not officially announce a reelection campaign until next year.

“I’ve been publicly asked about once a month for the last year about my intent to run, and I always want to give a straightforward answer,” Keller said in a statement Friday. “I plan to ask voters for another term to finish key projects like building out the Gateways, the consent decree, downtown revitalization, solidifying our social service response department, the Rail Yards film school and a dozen or so other critical projects. As I’ve stated in the past, I would formally announce early next year.”

Keller is on his second four-year term. The next mayoral election will be on the ballot in November 2025, over a year away.

“It’s no secret I am planning on another term, but it’s to see this through,” Keller told KOAT-TV in an interview that aired Thursday, referring to ongoing projects like the Gateway Center.

The statement is similar to one he made in a New Mexico in Focus interview in June 2023, when Keller told senior producer Lou DiVizio that running for a third term is “certainly what I’m looking at right now. It’s not a secret.”

Keller started his first term in 2017, after winning 62% of the vote in a runoff election against Republican Dan Lewis. Lewis is the current Albuquerque City Council president. In 2021, the race did not go to a runoff because Keller was reelected with 56% of the vote against former Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales and Republican Eddy Aragon.

The last Albuquerque mayor to serve three terms was Marty Chavez, although all three terms were not consecutive. He served as mayor from 1993 to 1997, then in two consecutive terms from 2001 to 2009.