SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A woman is knocking on the door of an enduring boys’ club in New Mexico politics, as Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver signals her interest in the 2020 race for U.S. Senate.
She registered a campaign committee last week with the Federal Election Commission and is expected to announce soon on her candidacy for the seat being vacated by fellow Democrat, Sen. Tom Udall.
The nomination already is being sought by six-term U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, who was endorsed last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
New Mexico is one of 18 states that have never sent a woman to the Senate, according to the Center for American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University.
“The last political glass ceiling in New Mexico is the U.S. Senate, and Toulouse Oliver has a really good chance of being victorious,” said Gabriel Sanchez, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico.
Sanchez said the Democratic primary is likely to be decisive. The lone Republican running so far, Gavin Clarkson, was defeated by Toulouse Oliver by 20 percentage points in the race for secretary of state.
Republican Heather Wilson, currently secretary of the U.S. Air Force, ran a competitive but unsuccessful campaign in 2012 for an open seat against Democratic Martin Heinrich.
Working in Toulouse Oliver’s favor, says Sanchez and others, are successful elections in two statewide races and a solid political base in the state’s largest city, Albuquerque, where progressive female candidates for the state House flipped several Republican-held seats last year.
Toulouse Oliver previously served in Albuquerque as county clerk.
Secretaries of state, including Toulouse Oliver, also have gained prominence amid questions about voter fraud, Russian interference in elections and concerns about ballot access and voter identification requirements.
Toulouse Oliver has spoken out against President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud, while being credited with expanding voter participation in 2018 and helping passing same-day registration into law this year.
Democratic women twice took on GOP Sen. Pete Domenici during his 36-year Senate career and were resoundingly defeated.
“Those were the days of Saint Pete, nobody could win,” said former Democratic state Sen. and political activist Dede Feldman, who worked for Judy Pratt’s unsuccessful Democratic Senate campaign in 1984. “What I’ve seen nationally and here in New Mexico, is that the party will allow women to run as sacrificial lambs almost against very powerful senators.”
That scenario has evolved, Feldman said. Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham was elected governor last year to succeed Republican Susana Martinez; women now hold two of the state’s three congressional seats, and gained representation last year in the state House.
Women currently hold 25 Senate seats in Washington out of 100, with 17 Democrats and eight Republicans.
Kelly Dittmar, a Rutgers professor and scholar at the Center for American Woman and Politics, said male candidates for the House and Senate still outnumbered females more than 3-1 in 2018 - a major factor in the persistent gender gap among those elected.
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