Data and polling highlight NM’s poor governance

This post will be somewhat different insofar as it connects various data points, including polling data, to make conclusions about the challenges facing New Mexico:

1. According to Wallethub New Mexico is the “worst state to live in” in the entire country. Disagree with their metrics if you will (we think they are reasonable), but notably the liberal “Voices for Children’s” annual Kids Count report arrives at a similar conclusion as do many other national reports which more closely align with Rio Grande Foundation’s outlook.
2. According to a poll from KOB TV Channel 4, 49% of New Mexican’s believe that Gov. MLG’s COVID policies were “just right” and another 16% said the restrictions were “too lenient.” RGF recently addressed the Gov.’s COVID response.
3. COVID responses have been highly partisan as a separate national poll finds that 57% of Republicans and just 4% of Democrats “believe the pandemic is over.”
4. New Mexico has the 2nd-highest unemployment rate in the nation and Gov. MLG has stated that she will NOT turn down Biden’s $300 “supplemental” unemployment payments. A new report shows that states that HAVE foregone those benefits have seen faster declines in unemployment than those that have kept them. Notably, as the unemployment data show, those states with Republican governors already had lower unemployment rates than New Mexico and other Democrat-governed states.

It would seem (not shocking to many) that New Mexico’s fundamental problem is that it’s elected leaders make bad policy decisions and that voters’ ignorance only reinforces those views. Wallethub’s map is below: