Haaland, Bregman face off in only Democratic governor debate

By Clara Bates, The Santa Fe New Mexican

Saturday, May 2, 2026

ALBUQUERQUE — The two Democratic candidates for New Mexico governor faced off in their only debate before the primary Saturday night.

Deb Haaland and Sam Bregman clashed over a handful of environmental issues, with Haaland taking stronger stances against data centers, reuse of fracking wastewater and the proposed takeover of Public Service Company of New Mexico by the private equity giant Blackstone.

Bregman, who is district attorney in New Mexico’s most populous county of Bernalillo, spent months demanding Haaland, a former U.S. interior secretary and congresswoman who has a significant lead in the polls, debate him. He talked about his debate challenge in TV ads and even created a website counting how many days had gone by without a debate.

But when they finally debated, his signature issue of cracking down on crime didn’t come up. At several points, Bregman ran out of time in his answer just as he seemed to be getting going.

Bregman said it wasn’t a true debate because the questions came from a handful of mostly left-leaning advocacy groups.

The candidates largely agreed on issues like expanding tax credits to help children and working families, protecting people’s data privacy, continuing to support universal childcare and standing up to federal immigration authorities.

Behind the scenes, before the debate began, Haaland was doing sun salutations in a classroom and playing Uno with her staff.

Bregman, in a classroom on the other side of the building, didn’t seem his usual boisterous self. He sat with a green box of Altoids in front of him, a few staffers standing nearby.

The debate, which was held at Central New Mexico Community College’s Smith Brasher Hall, was recorded and will be aired on New Mexico PBS at 7 p.m. Thursday and 9 p.m. Friday. It will also be available on the PBS app and YouTube channel after it airs Thursday.

Data centers

A proposed data center for artificial intelligence in Doña Ana County, called Project Jupiter, has faced fierce scrutiny over water use and emissions.

Asked about data centers more broadly, Bregman was more supportive than Haaland.“If done right, data centers can provide benefit to a community and actually accelerate clean energy,” Bregman said, adding desalinated brackish water could be used instead of freshwater. He said he would want to guarantee no disruption to the grids, or increase energy costs for consumers.

“But the jobs … the construction jobs alone, are huge,” he said. “They’re a lot. So we have to have a governor who’s willing to balance those interests, to make sure that our environment is absolutely protected, but also making sure we’re taking advantage of economic development, where we can.”

His answer was met with murmuring from the mostly pro-Haaland audience, which the moderator shushed.

Haaland said the state should provide jobs by trying to meet other needs, such as building teacher housing.

“I just believe very strongly that data centers don’t have the best interests of our community at heart,” she said.

“The way I look at data centers, we can create construction jobs by building affordable housing. We need that all over the state. There are teachers in Roy, New Mexico, who have to live in their travel trailers because there is not affordable housing for public school teachers,” she said.

Blackstone

Blackstone is in the process of trying to take over New Mexico’s largest electric utility, PNM — an effort that has drawn fierce backlash.

Haaland said private equity has a poor track record and encouraged people to speak out against the deal.

“Their first priority are their shareholders, not the community, not New Mexicans. And so I’ll just say that Blackstone, if this deal goes through — and I’m actually encouraging anyone who has a voice on this to make sure that they’re using their voice — if this deal goes through, their feet need to be held to the fire,” she said.

“We need to care about our communities and make sure that any industry that’s coming to New Mexico, they are making their community investments they are not using New Mexico as a piggy bank,” she added.

Bregman said PNM can’t expand its renewable energy portfolio without help.

Referring to the state’s renewables goals, Bregman said, “I think everybody in the room would love to see that happen. ... It’s going to take a lot of building out our capacity, and our transmission lines.”

“PNM doesn’t have the money to do that,” he continued. “It’s going to cost a hell of a lot of money.”

However, he said there would need to be no rate increases for consumers.

The timer went off before Bregman could get to his other points, and he shook his head in dismay and put his hands in his pockets.

Produced water

Current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has favored allowing fracking wastewater to be treated and reused, although attempts to get proposals through the Legislature and the regulatory process have so far stalled. Haaland urged caution.

“The science is still out on produced water. None of us know what produced water contains, and we shouldn’t be able to let it loose in any streams or anywhere in our drinking water supply, because I believe that’s very dangerous,” she said.

Bregman appeared more open to water reuse.

“Brackish water, all different reused water of any type: We need to make sure it’s cleaned up, that it’s fresh and that we make sure that we protect every precious drop of water that we possibly can,” he said.

“But we also have to build out our resources and recognize the fact that our city parks here, for example, are cleaned-up sewage that’s watering the parks,” he continued, again running out of time before he could finish his answer.

Debate in name only?

Saturday’s event, called the “Debate Games,” was sponsored by the Albuquerque nonprofit Dukes Up, which “uses unorthodox methods to engage New Mexicans in community activism,” according to its Facebook page.

The event began with high school debate students playing a multiple-choice game, guessing the candidate’s position on various issues. Haaland’s team won; Bregman looked down and shook his head when the students on his team missed questions.

The event began with high school debate students playing a multiple-choice game, guessing the candidate’s position on various issues. Haaland’s team won; Bregman looked down and shook his head when the students on his team missed questions.

Bregman argued Saturday’s event was a debate in name only.

In an interview before the event, he criticized the model of having questions come from advocacy groups instead of journalists.

“This is actually special interest groups asking questions and no disrespect to any one of them in particular, but that’s not a cross section of the people of New Mexico,” he said.

“Any time we can get Deb up on a stage and at least try and let the folks know what her vision is, I think is a good thing, because we haven’t heard much of it during this campaign, but at the same time, I don’t think anybody should be fooled into thinking that this is a real debate, because it simply is not,” he said.

After the debate ended, the audience chanted “Deb, Deb, Deb!”