Former Gov. Johnson visits Rio Rancho, shares thoughts on local, national political landscape

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson was in Rio Rancho recently to support a Sandoval County Commissioner who is running for state senate.

Johnson, who led New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 and ran for president twice, shared his thoughts on the political landscape in New Mexico and the United States of America with the Observer while he was in the City of Vision.

Johnson, who has homes in Taos and Santa Fe, said New Mexico is facing a crime crisis and the only way to fix that problem is at the ballot box.

“I just think that the Democrats are all about giveaways and it's just got to stop. Crime is a revolving door. So the notion that money is being spent that I don't think has to be spent. And then the fact that kids are convicted or arrested on gun violence, and then let go, there's something really wrong with not penalizing them,” Johnson said. “In this case, kids, I think they are responsible and that they should be punished and they're not being punished. The person gets convicted or sentenced, but they're out on parole and they're committing crime. It's the parole for a violent offense. I do think change is really, really needed. That would be New Mexico voting red as opposed to blue.”

It’s not just crime that is plaguing New Mexico, Johnson added, there’s also too much government aid that is a problem here.

“States that are doing really well economically don't give anything away. So it's about work and it's not about welfare. In New Mexico, it's more about welfare than it is work,” Johnson said. “When you take the stance that you're going to err on the side of giveaway as opposed to erring on the side of making sure that the person you're giving money to is really in need of that money. I mean, there's an allocation for that. I believe in a hand up, not a hand out. Hand up ultimately results in a tax-paying citizen that pays it all back. That's a line that I think that Democrats have stepped way over on the side of giveaway. They're on the side of handout as opposed to hand up.”

Johnson was the keynote speaker in late July at a Rio Rancho fundraiser for Jay Block, a Republican two-term Sandoval County commissioner who is running for a New Mexico Senate seat in November.

Johnson said he had plenty of advice for Block, who occasionally didn’t listen to it, but he says he is the exact type of elected leader New Mexico needs to fix its problems.

“I love the guy. I think it would make a huge difference if he is elected to the state Senate. I think he would have made a great governor,” Johnson said. “I think he could be a U.S. senator. I hope this is not the end, and I don't want to say this is a stepping stone in any way. But I know that he’s going to provide leadership in the state Senate that is sorely needed.”

Block calls Johnson his political mentor and New Mexico’s last great governor.

“The governor and I might not agree on some things, but that's OK. We both love this state. We love it dearly, and we want to give back and I want to thank the governor for his years of service to New Mexico, especially when it comes to infrastructure and business and fiscal responsibility,” Block said. “This man put New Mexico on the map and, unfortunately, leaders that came after him did not keep us on the right path to prosperity. So when I was running for governor, I looked up to Gary and I wanted to reach out to him because I respected the man for what he has done and what he believes in, also his passion for, not just New Mexico, but the United States because, quite frankly, this country is in some serious, serious trouble.”

Johnson was a member of the Republican party when he was elected governor in 1995 but switched his affiliation to Libertarian for his presidential runs in 2012 and 2016.

During his two terms, he lowered taxes and balanced the state budget. He also vetoed more than 750 bills.

After leaving office in 2003, Johnson remained involved in politics. He sought the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2012 presidential election but switched to the Libertarian Party in 2011. The following year he became the party’s presidential candidate.

Johnson earned fewer than 1% of the ballots cast in the 2012 general election— which was won by the Democratic incumbents, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden — but Johnson claimed nearly 1.3 million votes.

In 2016, Johnson again secured the Libertarian nomination on the presidential ballot.

Johnson finished third behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but he received nearly 4.5 million votes (3.3% of the total vote), which is the most for a third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in 1996 and the highest national vote share for a Libertarian candidate in history. After the 2016 presidential election, Johnson said he would not run for president again.

Johnson ran for the U.S. Senate as a Libertarian in the 2018 New Mexico U.S. Senate race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, coming in third with 15.4% of the statewide vote (107,201 votes). Johnson has since has had little involvement in politics.

While now out of the national spotlight, Johnson is fascinated by the 2024 presidential race, which he says could be an easy race for Trump to win if the former president can somehow find “an ounce of humility.”

“It's just unbelievable, turn the page and see what happens tomorrow. Unbelievable. I would hope that conservatives get elected, but I don't think Trump is going to get elected. I just think that if he were to stick with the truth and what he has accomplished, I think that he'd probably win,” Johnson said. “But since the inception of Trump politically, and I'm going back to 2016, half of everything he says is not true. Whether that's an outright lie, or whether that's just embellishment, I wish that weren't the case, but that is the case. We can't help him. If he just had an ounce of humility. I think that would equate to a lot of votes that he doesn't currently have ...

“I listened to all one hour and 33 minutes of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, and if he had just stuck to what was true, the speech would have lasted half as long as it lasted. But once again, half of everything he says is not true, whether that's just embellishment, or whether that's outright lies. And that's the way Trump is and I don't think that he's gonna get elected on the basis of that.”

If Trump isn’t elected in 2024, Johnson says the only way a third-party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Junior or Chase Oliver would win is with enough money.

“I thought that in 2016, and based on what I know, the only way that you can win as a third party is to have independent wealth. Politics is all about money,” Johnson said. “The only way a third party wins, is a third party that's headed up by somebody who's independently wealthy. So this is something that I say all the time. We're all independents. We're not Democrats or Republicans. I think we're all, the majority of people in this country, are independent.”