Sen. Lujan

Can the GOP take advantage of an obscure state election law to reverse their historic failure to field a candidate against Dem US Senator Ben Ray Luajn in the November general election? 

That's the question now that the GOP's only candidate--Rio Rancho's Christopher Vanden Heuvel--failed to submit enough petition signatures to qualify for the June primary ballot. 

But there's still still one long-shot play available to the R's--qualify a write-in candidate for the June primary who could have a shot at getting on the November ballot. 

Longtime Rio Rancho Republcian activisd Todd Hathorne says on his social media that failed candidate Vanden Heuevel is now pursing the write-in option:  

Chris Vanden Heuvel did not quit. He is fighting every day. Signatures are coming in.

Here's how a Republican write-in candidacy plays out according to state election law and as explained by our ace analytical friends at Downballot and Sabato's Crystal Ball:

There’s an outside chance that Republicans could still land a Senate candidate, but time is running out. Anyone who wants to seek the GOP nomination as a write-in candidate only has until March 17 to collect 2,351 signatures—a number that represents 2% of the number of registered Republican voters who cast a ballot in the most recent gubernatorial election. They would then need to win that same number of write-in votes in the primary to get their name on the fall ballot.

We confirmed that take with the SOS's office as well as state elections expert and former state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto who wrote many of the state's election statutes. 

Yes, it is quite the long-shot but perhaps worth taking to avoid the embarrassment of having no GOP candidate for a US senate seat for the first time in state history. 

Meanwhile, DC was as surprised as New Mexico over Lujan's developing free ride:

The Crystal Ball already had New Mexico’s Senate race rated as Safe Democratic, Lujan did not strike us as the most obvious candidate for a “free ride” in 2026. When he was first elected to the chamber in 2020, he ran noticeably behind the top of the ticket despite a well-established record in state politics: as Joe Biden carried New Mexico by 11 points, Lujan defeated Republican TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti by 6 points. 

Old timers will recall 1980 when Joe Skeen became only the third person in US history to get elected to the US House as a write-in candidate. After upheaval in the state Dem party, Skeen won the battle for the open southern NM congressional seat and he did not retire from it until 2003. (Here is our obituary of Skeen from our Dec. 8, 2003 blog.)

In the Lujan case there is no upheaval among the Dems--although the senator has drawn a symbolic Dem primary foe in Matt Dodson--and Lujan is heavily favored to beat any Republican candidate who may arise. It would, however, be a point of pride for the GOP to have someone--anyone--fill that glaring opening on their '26 ballot. 

AN INDY CANDIDATE?

Lujan could still be challenged by an independent candidate but they would have to gather about 14,000 valid petition signatures by late June to qualify for the November ballot. 

Could a Republican now run as an independent? A "former" Republican could. 

The SOS says an independent candidate for the general election would have to be registered as a decline to state voter by the time the Secretary of State issued the General Election Proclamation on January 26. 

This the Home of New Mexico Politics.