2020 United States presidential election in New Mexico

The2020 United States presidential election in New Mexicowas held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the2020 United States presidential electionin which all 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbiaparticipated.New Mexicovoters chose electors to represent them in theElectoral Collegevia a popular vote, pitting theRepublican Party's nominee, incumbent PresidentDonald Trump, and running mateVice PresidentMike PenceagainstDemocratic Partynominee, former Vice PresidentJoe Biden, and his running mate California SenatorKamala Harris. New Mexico has five electoral votes in the Electoral College.
New Mexico was won by Biden by a 10.79% margin of victory. Prior to the election, most news organizations making election predictions considered New Mexico as a state Biden would win, or a safe blue state. Biden scored victories in all of the state's three largest counties:Bernalillo,Doña Ana, andSanta Fecounties, home toAlbuquerque,Las Cruces, andSanta Fe, respectively; all of them voted for Biden in margins greater than ten points.Aggregate polling correctly showed Biden ahead by double-digits in the state.
Perexit pollsby theAssociated Press, much of Biden's strength in New Mexico came from Latino voters, from whom he garnered 61% of the vote. These included 54% of Latinos ofMexicanheritage and 70% ofSpanish-Americans. Biden also carried a plurality of Caucasian/white voters in the state (49% to Trump's 48%).He also won overNative Americans, garnering over 60% of the vote.53% of voters believed theTrump administrationwas doing too little to helpNative American reservationsin New Mexico during theCOVID-19 pandemic, and these voters broke for Biden by 75%–23%.
This was the first election since1968in which New Mexico voted more Republican than neighboringColorado. Biden became the first Democrat to win the White House without carryingColfax County, orHidalgo Countysince 1920, when it was created.This was the first election since1948in whichValencia Countyvoted for the losing candidate.Although New Mexico is no longer classified as a critical swing state, Trump became the first ever Republican incumbent to consecutively lose New Mexico in an election and only the second ever U.S. president afterJimmy Carterto consecutively lose New Mexico in the state's history.
The primary elections were held on June 2, 2020.
Donald Trumpran unopposed in the Republican primary, and thus received all of the state's 22 delegates to the2020 Republican National Convention.
Biden won 2 out of 3 congressional districts.
The state used to be quite competitive, voting for DemocratAl Gorein2000with a margin of only 366 votes and RepublicanGeorge W. Bushin2004by 5,988 votes. However, New Mexico has become a reliably blue state since then as Democrats have relied onHispanic,Native American, and urban voters to deliver victories.
On the other hand, Trump increased his popular vote percentage by 3.46%, earning 43.5% of the vote share and over 400,000 votes in total. Much of this improvement could be attributed to the fact that theLibertarian Partynominee in2016had been former New Mexico GovernorGary Johnson, who earned 9.34% of the vote in his home state; Johnson did not run in 2020. That said, Trump's 43.5% represented not only an improvement on his own vote share in 2016, but also on those of future Utah SenatorMitt Romneyin2012(42.84%) and Arizona SenatorJohn McCainin2008(41.78%).
On December 14, 2020, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against theNew Mexico Secretary of Stateover the use of ballot drop-boxes for the 2020 presidential election. However, on January 11, 2021, five days afterCongress certifiedthe results for Joe Biden, the campaign dropped the lawsuit.Trump attorneys Mark Caruso and Michael Smithcited “events that have transpired since the inception of this lawsuit” in a three-page motion as the reason for dropping the lawsuit. Despite the withdrawal, the motion still allows for revisiting these concerns in the future.
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