GOP needs distance from Trump to regain competitiveness

“There’s nothing more fun than watching the Republicans out there lose a race. You know, we (Democrats) lose, you know, kumbaya, Dukakis was a great guy, poor John Kerry … (Republicans) go after each other with meat cleavers.”

— Democratic strategist James Carville, Jan. 5 Video of a local elected Republican amid a riotous mob at the U.S. Capitol, an errant tweet from the state party leader saying Donald Trump would “FOREVER” be their leader and statements from party leaders still claiming election fraud have New Mexico hurtling toward one-party rule unless there is a real course correction.

And to think the Trump campaign had sought to turn New Mexico “red” in 2020.

Once regarded as a swing state, a Republican hasn’t won New Mexico’s five electoral votes since former President George W. Bush’s narrow win in 2004. The gap between the Democratic presidential nominee to Trump increased from 8.3% in 2016 to 10.8% in 2020, when 43.5% of New Mexicans cast ballots for Trump.

New Mexico as a whole is clearly not Trump Country, notwithstanding Trump’s strong support in eastern areas of the state. And Republicans, who need to be competitive among moderates to be competitive statewide, lately have been shooting themselves in the foot.

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, who posted videos on his Facebook page showing himself on a balcony of the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 rioting, was arrested Sunday on a federal charge of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority.

Griffin, a founder of Cowboys for Trump, said during one of his self-damning videos that there would be blood running out of the U.S. Capitol building on Inauguration Day.

Griffin’s two colleagues on the Otero County Commission called for his resignation Tuesday after having had enough. “His actions have consumed an enormous amount of time of county staff, who must deal with the drama he instigates at the expense of attending public business,” commissioners Gerald Matherly and Vickie Marquardt, both Republicans, said in a joint statement.

Guys like Griffin used to be outliers in Republican Party politics. Today, there are too many of them with outsized voices. Steve Pearce was once a pragmatic, civil, seven-term conservative congressman from Hobbs before taking over as chair of N.M.’s Republican Party after an unsuccessful run for governor in 2018. After saying in Roswell in 2016 that Trump had been his 17th choice of 17 GOP presidential candidates, Pearce became a steadfast Trump supporter, to a fault.

A tweet on Pearce’s account posted three days after the deadly riot at the Capitol stated: “God bless Donald J. Trump. He will be our President FOREVER and no one can take that away from us.” A GOP spokesman said the tweet wasn’t sent by Pearce or authorized by party officials, but it stayed on Pearce’s account for two days before it was taken down.

In a Jan. 14 interview on “Inside New Mexico with Steve Pearce,” Pearce was still talking of election “anomalies” and comparing the D.C. rioters with Black Lives Matter rioters, when he should have focused his criticism on political violence within his sphere of influence.

U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell easily won the 2nd Congressional District seat last year, running as a staunch Trump supporter. She, too, has yet to condemn Trump for his words or actions leading up to or during the Jan. 6 riot.

Many Republicans believe Trump had a remarkably successful presidency as a job creator and trade deal negotiator. They also cite three successful Supreme Court nominations, American energy independence, 450 miles of new border wall, and the launching of Operation Warp Speed to create a vaccine for COVID-19 — all while withstanding relentless opposition and outright hatred from many Americans and most major media outlets.

Republicans should not be expected to denounce those policies and shift to Democratic positions or principles, but Trump’s behavior in the last months of his presidency was indefensible. And in a state where Democrats occupy every statewide-elected office, Republicans need to unhitch their wagon to be competitive again. To rebuild itself, the state GOP should acknowledge Trump’s missteps because the appetite for one-party rule in New Mexico has never been stronger.

And more importantly, it’s the right thing to do.