Republicans spend big on Spanish-language ads in New Mexico

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

“New Mexico is the hidden horse for this presidency,” Jay McCleskey, 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 stepped up their advertising efforts for the final effort.

Election Freedom’s $5 million ad blitz will pay primarily for Spanish-language ads that highlight how Kamala Harris and Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico have created inflation and allowed increase in illegal immigration As crime continues to rise – voters in New Mexico overwhelmingly say two issues are their focus.

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

According to the KConsulting survey, Harris is up just three points in New Mexico – a state Biden won by 10 points in 2020 – An additional three percent of the population say they are undecided.

Meanwhile, internal polls conducted by the Trump camp show a race that is almost neck-and-neck, thanks in part to rfk jr supportSources 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, helping put the state in play, sources say.

Kennedy, who now promotes the slogan “A vote for Trump is a vote for Kennedy” on his campaign materials, has also increased his advertising spending in the state over the past few weeks.

Trump’s support among Latino voters has risen 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, meaning the so-called Enchanted Land is being watched. Due to dramatic changes in turnout, voters throughout the Southwest Border states are going through a transition.

Catalina Miranda, a 26-year-old resident of Tucson, Arizona, who works in the auto industry with family in the border city of Nogales, said she was voting for Trump because “a lot of Republican values ​​align with Mexican values.”

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

“People here are angry at him (Harris) because people do not want to come to the shops to shop for fear of people sleeping on the streets being attacked. Our taxes are paying for migrants to stay in hotels,” Moreno said. “If Harris can’t be a good border ruler, how can she guide the entire 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 easily in 2020 because he ran as a centrist, but as soon as Harris emerges as a far-left candidate, it will sway voters,” McCleskey said.

“New Mexico has turned blue but it is not liberal or progressive…especially with respect to the border and crime,” he said. “Voters in Albuquerque (the state’s most populous city) are particularly focused on crime.”

Additional reporting by Joseph Trevino