Oct. 5—Nella Domenici remembers driving around New Mexico some 20 years ago with her late father, Pete Domenici, a political giant and larger-than-life figure who still holds the title of longest-serving U.S. senator in the state’s history.
The father-daughter duo operated a strategic consulting firm at the time and traveled around the state together on business.
Their long drives led to long conversations about a possible future in politics for the younger Domenici.
“He explained to me the history of the different companies he helped bring here [talk about] the ranchers or the farmers,” she recalled. “He just took me everywhere, so we talked about it then. But it was just more theoretical.”
Not anymore.
In her first bid for public office, Nella Domenici, former chief financial officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, is aiming high and hoping to get the family name back in Congress.
The 63-year-old Domenici, a Republican like her father, will challenge Democratic U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich in November.
Heinrich, 52, a darling of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, is seeking a third term — and with just a month to go until Election Day, his prospects look good.
A recent poll conducted by New Mexico-based Research & Polling Inc. for the Albuquerque Journal, showed Heinrich with a double-digit lead over Domenici, 50% to 38%, with 9% of those polled still undecided and another 4% saying they would. don’t vote either.
“I never feel comfortable in a campaign, but I feel optimistic,” Heinrich said when asked about the poll.
Domenici said data analysis conducted by her campaign also showed Heinrich ahead, but the gap was much smaller. She noted that Heinrich has an advantage as an incumbent.
“We did that [the data analytics] so we could figure out where to place our bets as we spent the last six weeks designing and creating a very smart campaign,” she said.
Deflect questions
The highly competitive showdown has turned into a costly and contentious race between a political neophyte with a strong financial background, who only moved to New Mexico full-time a few years ago, and a veteran politician known for championing the nation’s public lands state and a clean energy economy.
With a Senate seat on the line, Heinrich’s own political future in New Mexico is the subject of widespread speculation as he considers a run for governor in 2026.
Heinrich would not immediately answer when asked whether he would commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate if re-elected.
“The way I make these decisions — which are obviously heavily influenced by my family — is I try to figure out where I can make the biggest difference for the state of New Mexico,” he said. “Right now, I believe that’s in the United States Senate.”
Heinrich pressed for an answer and deviated.
“I think I’ve given you my answer,” he said.
Heinrich was not the only one who was reluctant.
Domenici has tried to avoid questions about former President Donald Trump. In July, for example, she canceled a radio interview after the host said he had fielded questions about Trump in advance, including whether she still supported him after the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
When asked if she would vote for Trump in November, she dodged the question.
“I know now that a lot of the policies that Kamala Harris is championing are not the right policies for the state,” she said. “There are some policies that Donald Trump has embraced that I think have helped America become a much stronger country and helped New Mexico. For example, its policy on oil and gas. … I will generally agree with him on that, but I don’t attach myself to any one person.”
Pushing for an answer also distracted her.
“Right now I’d rather just talk about the issues,” she said.
Abortion policy
Heinrich, who previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, said this year’s race is unlike any other he has faced.
“It’s probably just the amount of resources being deployed,” he said. “I mean, the fact that [Domenici] has the ability to not only raise a lot of money, but also self-fund it, and that’s just a dynamic that we’re not really used to in New Mexico. We haven’t had many self-funders in our state.”
Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Domenici has raised more than $3.6 million, including $1.5 million in loans from Domenici and her husband, Patrick McDonough.
Heinrich is also a formidable fundraiser. His campaign reported Wednesday that it had raised $2.3 million in the final quarter before Election Day.
His campaign has portrayed Domenici as a multimillionaire hedge fund executive who cannot make an authentic connection with New Mexicans. According to published reports, Domenici and her husband reported assets estimated between $21.2 million and $94 million.
“New Mexicans deserve leaders who will fight for their families, not hedge fund managers who prioritize Wall Street over Main Street,” Heinrich, who grew up in a working-class union household, said in a statement as his campaign announced its latest fundraiser . load.
His campaign has also claimed that Domenici is funded in part by anti-abortion national Republicans and that a vote for Domenici is a vote for a national abortion ban — a claim that bothers Domenici, who says she does not support such a ban. prohibit.
“Martin Heinrich has certainly disappointed New Mexico women with the way he handled my abortion policy,” she said. “He has absolutely, unequivocally, knowingly lied about my policies, and he has taken one of the most important aspects of a woman’s life, and he has politicized it for his own benefit.”
Heinrich defended his campaign’s claim that abortion rights are in danger under Domenici.
“If she’s elected, the Republicans will have the majority in the United States Senate, and one of the first things she would do is vote for a majority leader if all those candidates, whether it’s John Cornyn or John Thune, have done that. have embraced the national abortion ban,” he said. “So she would bring leadership to make that happen, and I think it’s very clear that the impact of electing her would be to facilitate a national abortion ban.”
Domenici said she will not be controlled by anyone.
“When I am a senator, I will make every decision independently, and I will do what I said I was going to do,” she said. “So for him to just do a 180 and hire people to put out ads to say I’m not going to do that is terrible.”
At a meeting of South Valley Republicans in Albuquerque in April, Domenici told the audience she had been recruited to lead the National Republican Senate Committee.
“It’s a well-resourced organization, and their job is to identify potential Republican candidates and help those candidates in many, many ways,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks at the meeting.
“Four years ago they identified me, and this year they came back,” she said.
Her comments in April form the basis of the barrage of attack ads claiming Domenici is a threat to abortion rights.
‘Definition of carpetbagger’
But it is not the only attack base.
Democrats have accused Domenici of being a carpetbagger riding on her father’s coattails in a bid to get elected.
Domenici, who was born and raised in New Mexico but lived most of her life on the East Coast, said the attack is unfair. Her father moved the family to Washington, D.C., when she was 12 years old, “so we could all be in the same place and close to him,” she said, but New Mexico has always been her home. She called the house she and her husband have had in Santa Fe for 20 years their “real family home.”
“Martin Heinrich is the definition of carpetbagger,” she said. “He came here in his mid-20s, from out of state, with no roots, no connection, no opportunistic reason to come here. I was born here. I’m a third-generation New Mexican.”
Heinrich, a mechanical engineer, said he and his wife moved to New Mexico in 1995 “straight out of college because of the national labs and the technology that was here.” He said he loved the state and the opportunities it offered.
“That was almost thirty years ago,” he says. “I live in Albuquerque. My wife works in Santa Fe. My youngest son goes there [Albuquerque Public Schools]. My oldest son attends the University of New Mexico. I don’t know how many more roots I can get in this community.”
As the pair battle and make their case to voters, both say they have New Mexico’s best interests at heart.
“I love solving problems, and I believe I can accomplish much more for the state of New Mexico,” Heinrich said.
He is proud of the work he has done for the state, he added, including passing a bill that was “the largest expansion of VA benefits for our veterans in decades” and creating high-quality jobs .
“If you look at what the Inflation Reduction Act has done to manufacturing in the state and to clean energy generation, we are now seeing array technologies expanding, we are seeing new manufacturers,” he said. “The fact that we are building the largest clean energy project ever built in the Western Hemisphere, right here in New Mexico, is something to be proud of.”
However, Domenici said that “things are so terrible in this state,” from crime to education, that New Mexicans are ready for a change in leadership.
“I love the state,” she said. “The state has a whole pile of diamonds that just need to be reconnected to make us a truly incredible state.”
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.
