{"id":90390,"date":"2020-02-10T20:58:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/n-m-legislature-considers-making-state-first-presidential-primary-2\/"},"modified":"2020-02-10T20:58:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:58:42","slug":"n-m-legislature-considers-making-state-first-presidential-primary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/n-m-legislature-considers-making-state-first-presidential-primary-2\/","title":{"rendered":"N.M. Legislature considers making state first presidential primary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"New
New Mexico lawmakers are considering a bill to make the state one of the first presidential primaries in 2024.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 A week after the Iowa caucus officially kicked off the 2020 presidential primary season, the New Mexico state Legislature is considering a proposal to make the state hold an earlier primary.<\/p>\n

The bill would move the Land of Enchantment\u2019s presidential primary, starting with the 2024 election cycle, from the first Tuesday in June to the second Tuesday in January, ahead of Iowa\u2019s caucus date. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Iowa\u2019s first-in-the-nation caucus has come under increasing criticism for not being a diverse and accurate representation of the country. Discussions around having another state go first or re-evaluating Iowa\u2019s caucus<\/a> grew especially intense after Iowa\u2019s Democratic Party primary last week had difficulties counting votes with a new app it was using.<\/p>\n

New Mexico, with Hispanics and Latinos making up 49% of the population, would be a more diverse population than the other early primaries, like Iowa, Martinez said in an interview with The Albuquerque Journal<\/em>. He added it could increase a minority candidate\u2019s chances of winning a party\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

The proposal is not the first bill in recent years to try to move the state\u2019s primary to an earlier date. Republicans in 2015 supported a bill to move New Mexico\u2019s primary election \u2013 not just presidential primaries \u2013 to March. The legislation eventually stalled because legislators were worried how the move could effect state elections.<\/p>\n

Legislators in New Mexico are not alone in evaluating where its primary falls in relation to the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s presidential primary will be held March 3, with ballots of Montezuma County voters expected to hit mailboxes this week. This year\u2019s primary will be the first since Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold moved the date forward. Colorado will now be among 14 states with primaries on Super Tuesday. It will also mark the first time the state has held a primary election in 20 years since voters decided to end the caucus system in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, New Mexico will maintain its primary election on June 2, alongside Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota and the District of Columbia \u2013 all tied for the last date in the country to hold a 2020 presidential primary. The last day to register to vote in New Mexico\u2019s primary is May 5, and May 28 is the final day to request an absentee primary ballot.<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents currently vote in June, which is tied for last in country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,299,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-90390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-national-elections","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90390"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=90390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}