Trump labels New Mexico elections 'corrupt'

President Donald Trump on Friday identified New Mexico's elections as "so corrupt it's incredible" during a rural health care event at the White House, suggesting he would have won here were it not for the state's election practices.

Trump made the comments in response to a New Mexico physician assistant who said that state lawmakers plan to take up the issue of medical compacts at the upcoming 30-day session of the Legislature.

"They've got to clean up their elections in New Mexico because those elections are so corrupt it's incredible," Trump responded. "If they clean it up, we win by a lot. But they are really corrupt elections."

The New Mexico Secretary of State's Office responded Friday that Trump's comments were "both insulting and uninformed."

The Republican Party of New Mexico called Trump's comments "totally valid."

The roundtable event was broadcast Friday morning on C-SPAN from the East Room of the White House. The event followed an administration announcement last month that $10 billion would be invested in rural states under the Rural Health Care Transformation Program.

Trump called New Mexico "one of the more corrupt states" in terms of election practices.

"We have great love in New Mexico, but the elections are so corrupt there's not much you can do about it," he said. "We have that with numerous states."

Alex Curtas, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office, responded that New Mexico elections are among the most secure in the U.S.

"If the President was paying attention, he would know New Mexico runs the nation's top-ranked elections and that we are well-known for our security, access, and accuracy," Curtas responded in a statement.

Curtas referred to a report by the Elections Performance Index that found New Mexico the top ranked state in the U.S. based on factors such as voter turnout, electoral infrastructure, voting wait times and administration of voting by mail.

"New Mexicans of all political stripes are proud of our state's strong election security measures, like using 100% paper ballots, mandatory post-election audits, air-gapped vote counting systems, and continual voter roll maintenance," Curtas said.

Amy Barela, chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, responded Friday that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver "can't even comply with the most basic federal election integrity laws," and called Trump's comments valid.

"At a time when confidence in our electoral process is at an all-time low, Toulouse Oliver, like each one of her Democratic peers, is putting politics over the people of New Mexico — and people are tired of it," Barela said in an email response.

Trump made the comments in response to a woman who identified herself only as a paramedic and a county commissioner in northwest New Mexico.

The roundtable highlighted an announcement last month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarding $10 billion to all 50 states to support rural health care. The initiative will provide New Mexico with $211 million for rural hospitals.

H.R. 1, the large tax package passed in July, made significant cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance.

In New Mexico, changes to Medicaid could mean a loss of $8.5 billion in federal funds from 2028 through 2037, according to a New Mexico Health Care Authority guide. But lawmakers also used H.R. 1 to create a new $50 billion, five-year federal program to support rural health care.