Decision 2026: Gubernatorial candidates discuss education and other topics during second forum

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — We won’t know who New Mexico’s next governor will be until November, but you’ll be deciding who will be on that ballot in just five weeks.

When it comes to the race for governor there are 6 candidates. Tuesday, the community got more insight into their platforms during a forum held at Rio Rancho Public School headquarters.

They touched on a lot of topics: the economy, crime, healthcare and more but one in particular kept coming up: education. In last week’s forum in Santa Fe, they mainly focused on the economy.

Five candidates participated in the forum: Republicans Gregg Hull, Duke Rodriguez and Doug Turner and Democrats Deb Haaland and Sam Bregman. Independent candidate Ken Miyagishima did not participate.

All five candidates say when it comes to education, it’s an issue New Mexico is failing at and pointed to the fact that our state ranks last across the nation.

Hull and Turner both believe part of the answer is stopping what they called “social promotion” which means letting a child go to the next grade even if they don’t meet certain goal posts like reading.

“I’m going to be very, very focused on getting Career, Technical Education into all of our school districts, any school district that wants it, we need to be a partner with that and make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the workforce,” Hull said.

“We can’t just promote kids throughout the their school career, because we end up with a workforce that nobody can hire. So if we don’t focus on our children at all levels, we will be we will continue to fail,” Turner said.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez believes the answer is in offering more programs.

“You can’t have better students without taking care of your teachers, which includes funding their pension plan. We have got to go back to the basics and make our students value their education, make the parents realize the importance,” Rodriguez said.

Both Democrats Haaland and Bregman believe more intervention from educators is needed.

“Our kids need to read sooner. That’s why I want to put reading coaches in the classrooms and make sure that teachers can identify kids that need the help, so that we can make sure that they are ready to go on to the next grade, and that gives builds their confidence,” Haaland said.

“When a first and second grader isn’t up to that grade level, we need to rush in with ped, get them the help they need right away, so that we don’t end up in a situation where they’re at third grade not reading at grade level, at third grade, not doing math at that level,” Bregman said.

All five candidates will be on the primary ballot which will be held June 2.

The Republican and Democratic nominees will face independent Ken Miyagishima  — if he gets more than 14,000 signatures and files on June 25, per the Secretary of State’s office.