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Tuesday, August 19, 2025GOP Appears Divided Over ABQ Mayoral Race; Longtime R And Former Mayoral Hopeful Urges Republicans To Vote For Conservative Dem Sanchez Keller is expected to finish atop the field in the initial November election but short of the 50 percent needed for a first ballot win. Thus the December run-off a month later featuring the top two finishers. Republican Michelle Garcia Holmes, a former APD officer who was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor in 2017 and also came up short in two tries for the ABQ area congressional seat, took to the socials to warn R's away from leading GOP hopeful Darren White, a former APD officer and BernCo Sheriff Darren White. In fact, Garcia Holmes is urging her fellow R's to vote for conservative Dem candidate and City Councilor Louie Sanchez, another APD alumnus.. Here is her analysis of the race seeking to unseat Keller who is running for a third term: Because of the runoff rule requiring a winning candidate to get 50 percent of the vote in the initial election, there are not enough Republicans or other votes to get us there. I recommend choosing a conservative Dem to get a victory for us. There are so many people running and the votes split in different directions. The progressive Dems will come out for Keller, which will possibly give him what he needs to get to the run off. Dems Mayling Armijo and Alex Uballez will take some of those votes but not enough to matter. Sanchez is Keller's major threat as he is a sitting City Councilor on the Westside of Albuquerque and a Blue Dog Dem. Hard right Republicans will vote for the two Republican candidates, White and Eddie Varela. White is not a true Republican but has good name recognition, Turnout will be about 50 percent Democrats, 25 percent Republican and 25 percent independents. I worked in the same APD department as Sanchez and White. We were all police officers with APD. If it came down to those two my vote would go to Sanchez because of his integrity and honesty... The other candidate in the race is independent Daniel Chavez. None of the contenders has come anywhere near Keller in the fund-raising department. As the only candidate to qualify for public financing, he received over $750,000 in public money. Also, a PAC formed on his behalf could take his grand total over $1 million. Still, the race is only now being joined in the public narrative with about ten weeks to go until the Nov. 3 balloting. As one of our Senior Alligators puts it: "Joe, something could happen. Please wake me when it does." This is the Home of New Mexico Politics. |
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