The day after: Haaland discusses objectives as governor-elect

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexicans elected Deb Haaland Tuesday night—the first Native American to become governor in the entire country.

She is the projected winner, after unofficial results have her with 57% of the vote, beating Republican nominee Gregg Hull. But Wednesday, Haaland said she’s looking ahead to the future.

Hours after making their victory speeches, the governor-elect and lieutenant governor-elect met with supporters in Barelas before talking to reporters about what they plan to tackle.

What are Haaland’s priorities?

Among Haaland’s priorities: affordability, education and public safety.

Certain day one priorities we’ve heard before: a moratorium on data centers, appointing imperative positions like a new secretary at the Children, Youth and Families Department.

“Day one, a moratorium for large-scale data centers, with the legislature passing a set of guardrails, if you will, accountability measures for that industry, making sure that we protect our water, our land, and our air, and make sure that energy costs don’t go up for New Mexicans,” Governor-elect Deb Haaland said.

But when asked if she had anyone in mind for the positions, or a short list, she told reporters not yet.

“We didn’t know we would win until last night when the results came in, and I am not the type of person to put the cart before the horse. So now that we have won…we will absolutely start thinking about and looking at potential folks to fill those positions. But I feel confident that we can find the right people,” Haaland said.

She added that her transition website is now live.

How Haaland plans to work with our State Legislature

To get her agenda through, she’ll have to work with the Democratic majority state Legislature, and it seems they’re already in lockstep.

“I’ve actually already had phone calls with legislative leadership. They are excited to start to strategize around some of our overlapping priorities,” Haaland said.

“The Governor-elect mentioned that we already have a legislator lined up who wants to carry a guardrails bill on large-scale data centers. We already have folks working on affordable healthcare,” Lt. Governor-elect Stephanie Garcia Richard

Tuesday night, Democrats flipped four districts. KOB 4’s Blake Troli spoke with Speaker of the House Javier Martinez (D-NM) about what his priorities were.

“With a bigger majority, we’re going to deliver universal healthcare for every New Mexican. No New Mexican should be paying an arm and a leg for their child’s healthcare. We’re going to deliver on that, and Deb Haaland’s already on board. We’re going to work hard over the next couple of years to make that a reality,” Martinez said.

KOB 4 asked Haaland if she would be on board with universal healthcare.

“We support it, absolutely. We’ll work with the Speaker to make sure that we can move that forward. It’s so important that every New Mexican has healthcare that they can rely on. It’s imperative,” Haaland said.

How would universal healthcare work in New Mexico?

Haaland told reporters Wednesday it would be part of her “Public Option Agenda,” which would establish a state-run health insurance option for everyone.

But universal anything is easier said than done. Right now, we’re celebrating one year of universal childcare. New Mexico was the first in the country to roll it out.

But there are provider shortages and a funding concern. Something Garcia Richard said they plan to work on through incentives.

But the money has to come from somewhere to pay for those services. Coupled with our state’s healthcare worker shortage—how would New Mexicans benefit?

KOB 4 followed up with the Haaland campaign to find out. In a statement attributed to her, it said Haaland plans to combat the shortage through expanding medical compacts, increasing medical residency openings and pay, and creating more incentives for healthcare workers to stay in New Mexico through housing assistance and loan repayment programs. Haaland’s full statement is below.

KOB 4 reached back out to Martinez, asking how much universal healthcare could cost the state but didn’t hear back by the time of publication.

Back in August, the Legislative Finance Committee released a report saying the state’s Health Care Affordability Fund is facing an $85 million shortfall by fiscal year 2028.

Statement on universal healthcare from Deb Haaland:

“During my campaign, I have been clear that I want every New Mexican to have access to affordable care and that I support a path towards universal healthcare. We must also grow our pool of medical providers. We’ll begin addressing this by expanding medical compacts, increasing medical residency slots and pay, and creating more incentives for healthcare workers to stay in New Mexico through housing assistance and loan repayment programs.”

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