The Coming Bloodbath: How RPNM Lost NM
By Mick Rich
RPNM's Leadership Crisis Is Coming to a Head
Chairwoman Amy Barela is not leading a unified Republican Party of New Mexico—she is leading the Pearce/Barela faction of it.
Even Barela has implicitly acknowledged this reality. In a recent appeal, she asked Republicans to support her so she can lead the RPNM. This is an explicate acknowledgement that she won the Chair position through manipulation. At the same time, her executive director admitted to the e Santa Fe New Mexican that "the party has never been unified."
That is not a messaging problem. That is a leadership problem.
Barela has repeatedly attempted to push through two major rule changes within the State Central Committee (SCC). The first would lower the threshold for governing from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority fifty percent plus one. The second would allow a sitting RPNM chair to run for elected office against another Republican.
Three times she has attempted to force these changes. Three times the SCC has rejected them.
Now the conflict is coming to a vote.
April 18: A Defining Moment
On April 18, the SCC will decide whether Barela violated the very rule she failed to change—one that prohibits the chair from running against another Republican for elected office.
If she loses, she is out as chair.
If she holds onto the support of just over one-third of the SCC, she survives but only as the leader of a faction, not a party.
Either outcome confirms the same reality: the RPNM is fractured.
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Things are Happening in New Mexico by Terrance Wolf
A Party in Decline
While Republicans across the country rode "Red Wave" momentum in 2016 and 2024, the RPNM saw little to no benefit.
Worse, in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the party lost ground—so much so that today, not a single New Mexico Republican holds a seat in the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, or any statewide office.Now the situation has deteriorated further:
• No Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, State Treasurer, or State Auditor
• An incumbent removed from the ballot
• Another withdrawal due to health concerns
At the same time, new political competition is emerging. Andrew Yang has announced that the Forward Party has gathered enough signatures to qualify as an official minority party in New Mexico, with candidates expected on the November ballot.
If history is a guide, this could mirror the impact of the Libertarian surge led by Gary Johnson and Blair Dunn in 2018—splitting votes and weakening Republicans further.
Why Voters Aren't Choosing RPNM
As Mark Ronchetti recently noted, New Mexico ranks among the highest-taxing states. At the same time, the state ranks near the bottom in child welfare, healthcare, safety, education, economic opportunity, and infrastructure.
New Mexicans are paying more—and getting less.
And yet, they still aren't voting Republican.
That should force a hard question: why not?
The answer is increasingly clear. Voters do not trust a party that cannot govern itself.
The Coming Bloodbath
The political losses ahead will be blamed on Chairwoman Barela—and not without reason.
But the deeper truth is this: the coming "bloodbath" is the result of decades of leadership focused on internal control rather than party unity.
As Barela's own executive director admitted, the party has never been unified.
And parties that are not unified do not win.
What Must Happen Next
Removing Barela may be necessary—but it is not sufficient.
New leadership must be installed for two reasons:
1. Credible concerns about rule violations must be addressed
2. The current faction must not be allowed to dictate the next leadership outcome
However, any new chair must be strictly transitional—not a long-term power holder.
That interim leader must:
• Accept responsibility for likely near-term electoral losses
• Create the conditions for a full reset
• Ensure open, transparent leadership elections at year's end
This is not about preserving the current structure. It is about clearing the way for something entirely new.
A Hard Truth—and a Path Forward
RPNM's current crisis has not happened overnight. It is the product of years of missed opportunities, internal division, and failed leadership.
And unless something fundamentally changes, there is no reason to expect a turnaround by 2030.
My generation, the Baby Boomers, must accept responsibility. We had opportunities to change course, but instead continued with the same patterns and outcomes.
The future of the RPNM now depends on a new generation.
The party must actively recruit leaders in their twenties and thirties—individuals not shaped by decades of losing campaigns or entrenched factional thinking.
New Mexico does not need leaders who have learned how to lose.
It needs leaders who know how to win.
Until that shift happens, the outcome will remain the same:
More losses. More division. And a party that continues to fall behind the state it claims to represent.
