State reference

How does government work in New Mexico?

New Mexico’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

112

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of the State of New Mexico source
In effect since: 1911 source

What may surprise you here

Judges first win a partisan election, then face nonpartisan retention votes that need at least 57 percent to keep the seat. source
Voters can overturn laws by referendum, but the state has no statewide citizen initiative to propose new laws. source

Legislature

Name: Legislature source
Senate: seats: 42 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 70 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Structure set by: N.M. Const. art. IV, sec. 1 and sec. 3.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: Ineligible after two terms until one full term has intervened source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: District Courts source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: first elected in a partisan election, then nonpartisan retention votes source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 33 source
Cities and towns: New Mexico has 105 municipal governments (cities, towns and villages) and no township governments, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source
Schools: New Mexico has 96 independent school districts and no dependent public school systems (2022 Census of Governments). source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County clerks source
Primary type: mixed: open to unaffiliated voters source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: referendum only source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Michelle Lujan Grisham Democratic, in office since January 1, 2019. source

US senators for New Mexico
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Martin Heinrich	Democratic	Class 1	January 3, 2013	January 3, 2031
Ben Ray Luján	Democratic	Class 2	January 3, 2021	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for New Mexico
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Melanie A. Stansbury	Democratic	June 14, 2021
District 2	Gabe Vasquez	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 3	Teresa Leger Fernandez	Democratic	January 3, 2021

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1