Duke Rodriguez
Duke should drop out since I believe he is not qualified to be governor since he has voted in Arizona not New Mexico.
Focus on Duke’s Arizona Voting History
For months, Duke Rodriguez has been telling anyone who will listen that he is “almost certain” he will run for governor of New Mexico in 2026. But the more people look at his background, the more it appears his big announcement may already be collapsing under its own weight.
The problem is simple, and it is entirely of his own making.
Duke has spent most of the twenty first century voting in Arizona, not New Mexico.
Not occasionally.
Not once or twice.
Not during a brief relocation.
For nearly two decades, his voting home was Arizona.
Public records from both states show a clear pattern: while he talks about being a lifelong New Mexican and claims he has always met the residency requirement for governor, his ballot history tells a very different story.
A Long Arizona Voting Trail
When asked recently about his voting record, Rodriguez first dodged the question. Then he insisted he had not been voting in Arizona. But official documents from the Arizona Secretary of State show otherwise. In fact, they show he voted consistently, regularly, and actively in that state’s elections.
A snapshot of his Arizona record includes:
Voting in every Arizona general election from 2012 through 2024
Voting in Arizona’s 2002 general election
Participation in Scottsdale municipal elections
Votes cast in Maricopa County elections
And it did not stop decades ago.
Just last year, he cast an Arizona ballot in the 2024 general election, a major statewide contest that included the presidency and a United States Senate seat.
While he was doing all that voting in Arizona, his New Mexico voting presence was practically nonexistent. According to New Mexico voter records, he had only one vote on the books: the Albuquerque municipal election he participated in earlier this month.
Even more telling:
He only registered to vote in New Mexico ten months ago, on January 14.
Residency vs. Reality
New Mexico’s Constitution is crystal clear. To run for governor, a candidate must have lived in the state continuously for five years before the election.
Rodriguez argues that because he has owned a house in Albuquerque since 1979, that alone satisfies the requirement. His attorneys apparently told him the same.
But that explanation falls apart fast under scrutiny.
If you have truly lived in New Mexico continuously for the last five years, why were you voting in Arizona’s elections the entire time? Why were you participating in Maricopa County races? Why were you involved in Scottsdale elections? Why were you casting ballots hundreds of miles away while claiming your heart and home were in New Mexico?
People do not go out of their way to vote in another state unless that state is where they genuinely live, work, or consider home.
Every one of his Arizona ballots is another piece of evidence pointing away from New Mexico and straight toward Scottsdale.
Silence When the Records Appeared
For months, Rodriguez had no trouble returning calls or giving interviews. But once his Arizona voting history surfaced, he vanished. He did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him for comment about why he spent nearly all his modern voting life in another state.
It is hard to run for governor while avoiding basic questions such as:
Why did you vote in Arizona for over twenty years?
Why did you only register in New Mexico ten months ago?
How can you claim New Mexico residency when your ballot box loyalty was clearly somewhere else?
No matter how he spins it, voters will compare his claims to his long Arizona record.
A Tough Sell to New Mexicans
Rodriguez sees himself as a businessman who can sweep into the Governor’s Office the way Gary Johnson did in the 1990s. But Johnson actually lived and voted here.
Convincing lifelong New Mexicans that you were committed to them while you were walking into Arizona voting booths year after year is likely going to be a much harder task than Rodriguez expected.
Some observers have joked that he might have been better off running for governor of Arizona instead. But Arizona is a much larger, tougher political arena, and Rodriguez would be at the very bottom of the state’s Republican hierarchy. New Mexico, with his business connections and past state-government experience, seemed like his more realistic path.
At least, until his voting record came out.
The Republican Field Moves On
Meanwhile, other Republican contenders who actually lived and voted in New Mexico are already running:
Gregg Hull, the mayor of Rio Rancho, who has voted in the state since 2004
Steve Lanier, a first-term state senator and former San Juan County commissioner
Both candidates may be low profile, but they at least meet the basic qualifications without controversy.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, now faces a simple but devastating question:
How can you run for governor of New Mexico when you spent most of the past two decades choosing Arizona as your voting home?
Until he answers that honestly and directly, his campaign may never get off the ground.