RGF dragged into primary battle between Senate District Primary Between Gallegos and Fulfer

There are a few intense battles in New Mexico going on among GOP candidates for Senate seats. We’ve weighed in on the race for Jim White’s seat, but Rep. David Gallegos is challenging Sen. Gregg Fulfer for his SE-New Mexico Senate seat and our Freedom Index has been used quite a bit.

In a debate posted here on Facebook (go to nearly the end at 1 hour 57 minutes) the Rio Grande Foundation and its Freedom Index became an issue. You can check the add run by the Gallegos campaign below which uses an accurate interpretation of our “Freedom Index” vote tracking system.

While RGF never attacked Fulfer, his statements regarding the Rio Grande Foundation expose his basic misunderstanding of our “libertarian” limited government, free market philosophy.

He implies that the Rio Grande Foundation rejects that our nation was founded on biblical principles, claims that we support legalizing “all” drugs, and claims we support allowing transgender boys into girls’ bathrooms and for them to compete against girls in sports.

Simply put, none of these statements are true.

The Rio Grande Foundation is a think tank. We work on economic and education policy issues to restore choice and personal responsibility. We HAVE endorsed the idea of marijuana legalization (based on criminal justice, personal freedom, and economic issues) but RGF has never endorsed legalization of ALL drugs.

We have Freedom Index data going back to 2015 (go to our webpage and look for the Freedom Index Link). Fulfer has been in the Legislature since 2019. He’s voted as moderate Republican during that time period. Gallegos, on the other hand, is a conservative within the Republican caucus in the House which is more conservative than the Senate GOP.

Whether the voters or candidates agree with the Rio Grande Foundation’s take on the issues is up for them to decide, but it is important to clear the air when the Foundation is accused of taking positions on issues it simply hasn’t taken.