Why I’m Running for Governor

By Gregg Hull

I have lived in New Mexico for 40 years. I came to Santa Fe as a young man, later settled in Rio Rancho, and built a life here. I am not running for governor because I want a title. I am running because I believe this state is capable of far more than we have been asked to settle for.

In 2000, I started a packaging and crating company in Albuquerque. I signed the front of paychecks instead of the back. I learned what it feels like to deal with state government from the other side of the counter, waiting on a permit while payroll comes due. That business was thriving when I sold it 14 years ago to run for mayor, and it is thriving today. I mention it because I think New Mexico needs a governor who has actually built something here.

For 12 years, I served as mayor of Rio Rancho, the longest tenure in the city’s history. When I took office, our economy had gone flat. We rebuilt it. We grew from about 93,000 residents to nearly 113,000 without raising the gross receipts tax a single time in 12 years. We doubled the police budget. We kept Intel in New Mexico when plenty of people assumed they were gone.

We recruited new employers, including a defense manufacturer bringing 300 high-paying jobs, and we championed the Atrisco Solar Project, an $850 million investment that powers more than 110,000 homes and sends tax revenue straight into our public schools.

Our production has filled the treasury with money the state did not plan on. I believe that windfall belongs to the families who earned it. Rather than one more round of temporary checks, I want to start permanently reducing what New Mexicans pay in personal income tax, so working people keep more of their paycheck and businesses stop crossing the Texas line to stay competitive.

None of this is about party. A longtime Democratic mayor from Las Cruces ended his own campaign for governor to endorse me. Firefighters, police officers, and more than a dozen mayors have joined us. They are not signing on to a label. They are signing on to results.New Mexico’s best days are ahead of us. I am asking for the chance to prove it.

Gregg Hull is the Republican nominee for governor of New Mexico and served as mayor of Rio Rancho from 2014 to 2026.

* Political Submission*