Albuquerque, NM - With the resignation of State Senator Nicholas Paul, SD-33 is currently vacant as we are now just days away from the start of the 2026 legislative session. It has now been over two months since Governor Lujan Grisham has had candidates to fill this vacancy. As it currently stands, whoever is nominated to fill this vacancy will be completely disadvantaged in their efforts to represent their constituents in southern New Mexico. This nomination, if the governor even makes it, will be just days, or hours, before legislative session begins which is completely unacceptable, especially in a Republican district like SD-33.
"There's really no excuse for the governor to stall this nomination," said RPNM Executive Director Leticia Muñoz. "This will hurt the people of SD-33 if they do not have representation by the capital outlay deadline. Governor Lujan Grisham is making this political with the intention of disadvantaging our caucus prior to the most important legislative session in our state's history."
The deadline to submit capital outlay requests is next Monday, January 12. This is the main deadline for getting new capital outlay requests into the system for consideration in the 2026 session. By not having representation in the State Senate, the people of SD-33 risk important local projects being left out of final budget bills for key infrastructure building. This undoubtedly fails the hardworking New Mexicans in the district who depend on their state government working for them. It is unconscionable to think their governor would stall this nomination process before such a consequential deadline.
By reportedly having multiple candidates to choose from and sitting on a final decision for months, the governor is playing political games. Republicans in the State Senate are being dealt a procedural disadvantage with the way this has dragged on. This has led to consequential committee impacts for our caucus and weakens the negotiating power we have in the State Senate for what is expected to be a pivotal legislative session in New Mexico's long history. There is an enormously long list of issues New Mexico faces, and our state is at a critical turning point. We formally call on Governor Lujan Grisham to nominate a Republican to fill this vacancy by the end of this week for the sake of her constituents.
