New Mexico GOP Chair: ‘We’re All In’ on ‘Pickup Opportunity’ for Republicans in June Special Election

New Mexico Republican Party chairman Steve Pearce believes the recently vacated U.S. House seat in his state’s First Congressional District is winnable for Republicans in the upcoming special election, providing his remarks on Breitbart News Saturday with host Matthew Boyle.

Former Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) resigned from the seat Tuesday after being confirmed as President Joe Biden’s Department of Interior secretary, triggering a special election in the state that will take place June 1.

Pearce (pictured), also a former U.S. representative of New Mexico, called the race a “pickup opportunity” for Republicans.

“The overreach of the Biden administration, the chaos that they’ve got going on at the border, the damage they’re doing to the New Mexico economy, to taking away our budget for teacher pay, all of those things are beginning to soak into the public, and they’re saying, ‘Wait there is a difference between Democrat, Republican,’” Pearce said. “People are asking significant questions between Biden and Michelle Lujan Grisham, our governor, that just believe this is a pickup opportunity for the Republicans. Nationwide, it would set the Democrats’ House upside-down when we win this race, and so we’re all in for it.”

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Boyle pointed out that, while the seat presents an opportunity for Republicans, it will be an uphill climb given Democrats have firmly occupied the district for more than a decade and the Cook Political Report ranks it as seven points favorable toward Democrats. Pearce said four issues that have been exacerbated by Democrat polices and have negatively impacted constituents will be key to a Republican win.

“Border, crime, education, and the economy — all four of those are central to New Mexico right now,” Pearce said. His state, he explained, is experiencing a “catastrophe” at the border from an influx of migrants, including unaccompanied children. He also said his state has been devastated by job losses from coronavirus lockdowns and that New Mexico parents feel their kids have lost one of 12 critical years of schooling because of an absence of in-person education.

Pearce asserted New Mexicans and Americans across the country are able to contribute to Republicans’ push to flip the seat red. “Go on our Facebook page, Republican Party of New Mexico, and say, ‘Hey, I’m willing to help.’ That gives us a contact point. We can let people all over the country make calls to Republicans. Make sure they get out to vote. It’s going to be a very short time period so we need all the hands we can get on deck,” Pearce continued. “If they can’t participate that way, then contributions to the party are going to go to fighting this fight in that First Congressional District. … It would be the repudiation of a lifetime for the Democrat policies of the progressives, not only in New Mexico but nationwide. And so this is a moment that we can move, and one that we feel confident that if we will get our candidate, get them disciplined and on message, get our voters out, that we can win this seat.”

Pearce added, “We’re in a fight for our lives in this country. Don’t be on the sidelines.”

Members of both the state’s Democrat and Republican Parties’ central committees will vote for their respective candidates for the June 1 election in the next two weeks.

Breitbart News Saturday broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.