SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico residents are throwing their financial support in the race for U.S. president mainly behind progressive candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, according to an analysis of individual contributions to campaign committees.
The fundraising tally by the Center for Responsive Politics focused on contributions over $200 before Oct. 1 and left out some small donations.
It shows Sanders, the Vermont senator who narrowly lost New Mexico to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary, at the front of the fundraising pack with at least $379,000 in individual contributions. Warren of Massachusetts is close behind.
They are followed by President Donald Trump; Pete Buttigieg, the youthful mayor of South Bend, Indiana; and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California. Former Vice President Joe Biden is further down the list.
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Fred Harris says New Mexico is closely following national trends when it comes to the fundraising.
“What that shows is sort of the enthusiasm,” said Harris, husband of state Democratic party chairwoman Marg Elliston. “Those three — Bernie Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg — have a lot more enthusiastic supporters.”
Warren has tapped U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland of Albuquerque as a co-chairwoman of her presidential campaign. Before her groundbreaking 2018 campaign as a Native American woman, Haaland previously led the state Democratic Party.
The last time New Mexico went for a Republican in the general election for president was with George W. Bush in 2004, though the state elected Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in 2010 and 2014.
Democrats control New Mexico’s entire Washington delegation, after flipping a Republican House seat in 2018, along with every statewide elected office outside the judiciary.
That hasn’t deterred Trump from targeting the state for victory in 2020, He held a campaign rally on the outskirts of Albuquerque in September.
