New Mexico

Republicans spend big on Spanish-language ads in New Mexico, with hopes ‘Trump could change’ 20-year blue streak

Published

1 year ago

October 22, 2024

Republicans spend big on Spanish-language ads in New Mexico, with hopes ‘Trump could change’ 20-year blue streak

Republicans believe they can win New Mexico for the first time in 20 years — and conservative advocacy groups are spending big on Spanish-language commercials for the last two weeks of the election.

“New Mexico is the dark horse this presidential cycle,” Jay McClesky, a longtime political strategist for Republicans in the state, told The Post. “New Mexico hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 20 years but Trump could change that.”

Sources say groups including the conservative advocacy group Election Freedom, as well as RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again PAC, have ramped up their advertising efforts for a final push.

Election Freedom’s $5 million ad blitz is primarily going to pay for Spanish language ads that highlight how Kamala Harris and New Mexico’s Democratic senator Martin Heinrich have created inflation and allowed a surge in illegal immigration as crime rises — two issues voters in New Mexico overwhelmingly say they are focused on.

“President Trump is making huge inroads with Hispanic voters and is actually leading among Hispanic men in multiple internal polls,” McClesky said.

According to polling from KAConsulting, Harris is up just three points in New Mexico — a state Biden won by 10 points in 2020 — with an additional three percent of the population saying they remain undecided.

Internal polls conducted by the Trump camp, meanwhile, show a race that is nearly neck-and-neck, thanks in part to RFK Jr.’s support, sources said.

RFK Jr. — who was polling at 8% in New Mexico before throwing his support behind Trump in August — has moved some of his supporters to the right, which has helped put the state in play, sources add.

Kennedy, who now promotes the slogan “a vote for Trump is a vote for Kennedy” on his campaign materials, has also ramped up his ad spend in the state over the last few weeks.

Trump’s support among Latino voters has jumped to 40% this year — more than double the 19% of latino voters he won in 2016. While 47% of voters in New Mexico are Hispanic, which means the so-called Land of Enchantment is seeing a dramatic shift in polling, voters all across Southwestern border states are undergoing a transformation.

Catalina Miranda, a 26-year-old Tucson, Arizona, auto industry worker with family in the border town of Nogales, said she is voting for Trump because “a lot of Republican values align with Mexican values.”

And Erika Moreno, an El Paso, Texas, mother who is also the small owner of an online furniture store, said she will vote for Trump come November. An immigrant from Mexico who arrived in the US 24 years ago, she is fed up with the Biden-Harris administration for the countless illegal migrants who have filled her city’s downtown streets and turned it into a dangerous place for native customers.

“Folks are angry at her [Harris] here because people don’t want to come shop at the stores for fear of being assaulted, for people sleeping on the streets. Our taxes are paying for migrants to live in hotels,” Moreno said. “If Harris could not be a good border czar, how can she guide the whole country?”

In 2024, New Mexico had the highest violent crime rate of any state in the US, with 781 incidents per 100,000 people — more than double the national average.

“Biden won handily in 2020 because he ran as a centrist, but as Harris gets exposed as a far left candidate, that will move voters,” McClesky added.

“New Mexico has shifted blue but it’s not liberal or progressive … especially with respect to the border and crime,” he added. “Albuquerque [the most populous city in the state] voters in particular are focused on crime.”

Additional reporting by Joseph Treviño

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New Mexico

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Prediction Odds, Key Player to Watch for NIT Semifinal

Published

8 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Prediction Odds, Key Player to Watch for NIT Semifinal

It’s not just the NCAA Tournament that’s down to the final four teams, but the NIT also has just four teams remaining in its bracket. The semifinals are set to begin on Thursday night, with the first of two games being a showdown between New Mexico from the Mountain West and Tulsa from the American.

Let’s dive into the odds and my best bet for Thursday night’s matchup, with a berth in the NIT final on the line.

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Odds, Spread, and Total

Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook

Spread

New Mexico -3.5 (-118)
Tulsa +3.5 (-104)

Moneyline

New Mexico -178
Tulsa +146

Total

OVER 161.5 (-110)
UNDER 161.5 (-110)

New Mexico vs. Tulsa How to Watch

Date: Thursday, April 2
Game Time: 7:00 pm ET
Venue: Hinkle Fieldhouse
How to Watch (TV): ESPN
New Mexico Record: 26-10
Tulsa Record: 29-7

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Betting Trends

Tulsa is 1-5 ATS in its last six games
The OVER is 8-3 in Tulsa’s last 11 games
Tulsa is 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games as an underdog
New Mexico is 5-0-1 ATS in its last six games
The OVER is 13-7 in New Mexico’s last 20 games

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Key Player to Watch

David Green, F – Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

If Tulsa wants to pull off the upset and win this game, they need David Green to step up in a big way. He’s the team’s leading scorer, averaging 15.7 points per game, but he scored just five points in the NIT quarterfinal. Let’s see if he can bounce back with a strong performance tonight.

New Mexico vs. Tulsa Prediction and Pick

Tulsa has already beaten one Mountain West team in the NIT, taking down UNLV by a score of 77-66, and I think they can at least cover as underdogs against New Mexico.

The Golden Hurricanes are one of the best shooting teams in college basketball, ranking 25th in effective field goal percentage. Well above New Mexico, which comes in at 70th in that metric. Tulsa is also a solid team defensively, ranking 106th in defensive efficiency.

The Mountain West continues to be an overrated conference. Their regular season and tournament champion lost in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Colorado State and Wyoming both lost in the first round of the NIT, and UNLV fell in the second round to Tulsa.

I’m going to continue to follow my strategy of fading the Mountain West in postseason tournaments.

Pick: Tulsa +3.5 (-104) via FanDuel

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New Mexico

Santa Fe National Forest, other Northern New Mexico land, announce fire restrictions

Published

20 hours ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

Santa Fe National Forest, other Northern New Mexico land, announce fire restrictions

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New Mexico

New Mexico State women’s basketball’s 3 best March Madness moments

Published

1 day ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

New Mexico State women’s basketball’s 3 best March Madness moments

New Mexico State’s women’s basketball team has entered a new era with the hiring of Adeniyi Amadou as its new coach. He’ll try to take the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament, where they appeared multiple times in the 1980s and 2010s.

NM State has six NCAA Tournaments, four conference tournament championships (all won as part of the Western Athletic Conference) and eight regular-season conference championships to its name in women’s basketball. The Aggies have reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament once in 1988, although that was when teams could receive first-round byes if they were a high enough seed (they were a No. 6 seed then and lost to Washington in their first NCAA Tournament game).

Let’s look back on some of those seasons. Here are the three best March Madness moments in NM State’s women’s basketball history:

First conference tournament win (2015)

NM State began its WAC dynasty in 2015.

The Aggies won their first-ever conference tournament in women’s basketball in the 2015 WAC Tournament. NM State was the regular-season conference champion and earned the No. 1 seed and a bye to the semifinals of the WAC Tournament as a result. The Aggies went 2-0 to secure a conference tournament championship.

Bolstered by 22 points from Sasha Weber and 16 rebounds from Brianna Freeman, NM State pulled out a 79-75 overtime win in the semifinals over Seattle. Another 20 points from Weber helped the Aggies win the WAC Tournament championship game 70-52 over UT-Pan American (which has since merged with UT-Brownsville to form UTRGV) and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988. Freeman was named the WAC Tournament MVP.

Three in a row (2017)

The Aggies would then make it three consecutive WAC Tournament championships two years later.

NM State entered the 2017 WAC Tournament with a perfect 14-0 conference record, and it kept that unbeaten run going. The Aggies defeated UMKC (now referred to as Kansas City) 71-63 in the semifinals thanks to four players scoring in double figures, including Moriah Mack’s 21 points in 40 minutes of action. NM State then took down Seattle 63-48 in the championship game off the back of a double-double from Tamera William at 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Mack won the WAC Tournament MVP that year. She scored 18 points against the Redhawks in the championship game. It was the third and final WAC Tournament championship for then-coach Mark Trakh before he joined USC.

Resilience in overtime (2019)

Another regular-season conference championship wasn’t enough in 2018, as the Aggies lost to Seattle in the semifinals. But NM State got back on its perch in the WAC in the following year.

Guided by second-year coach Brooke Atkinson, the Aggies needed two overtime victories to win the 2019 WAC Tournament after defeating Chicago State in the quarterfinals (the WAC Tournament went from seven to eight teams starting in 2018, with no byes to the semifinals). The first one came in a 91-80 win over UMKC after NM State allowed just five points in overtime. The Aggies were forced into double overtime during the championship game against UTRGV, which ended with a 76-73 win.

Gia Pack scored 86 points across the WAC Tournament, including 36 against UMKC, to win the tournament’s MVP. Brooke Salas scored a team-high 29 points in the championship game.

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