Trump stop in blue-leaning state could boost Republican bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat

The Republican Senate nominee in New Mexico says former President Trump’s stop in the blue-leaning southwestern state on Thursday “will infuse our state with a lot of momentum.”

Nella Domenici, the 2024 GOP Senate nominee and the daughter of New Mexico’s last Republican senator, is trying to defeat Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is running in November for a third six-year term, as her party works to win back the chamber’s majority.

“Trump is definitely going to help us with the independents,” Domenici predicted in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the former president’s visit to the state. 

With five days until Election Day next Tuesday, the former president is making a rare detour from campaigning in the seven crucial battleground states in the White House race that will likely determine if Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the 2024 election.

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Rocky Mount Event Center, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Rocky Mount, N.C. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

It’s been two decades since a Republican carried New Mexico in a presidential election. You’ve got to go back to President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election.

There hasn’t been an abundance of polling in New Mexico, but most recent surveys indicate Harris with an upper single digit lead over Trump, although one survey suggests a tighter contest for the state’s five electoral votes.

With time such a precious commodity for presidential campaigns and the clock quickly ticking toward Election Day, New Mexico Democrats say Trump’s trip to the state – his first in five years – is a fool’s errand.

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“Trump is wasting his time coming to our state as polling shows New Mexicans are set to reject his MAGA extremism and divisive rhetoric yet again,” Democratic Party of New Mexico spokesperson Daniel Garcia claimed in a statement.

And referring to the Oct. 31st stop in Albuquerque by the former president, Garcia took a verbal shot at Trump, saying “a rotund orange mass will be in Albuquerque on Halloween, and we’re not talking about a pumpkin.”

Nella Domenici, the Republican Senate nominee in New Mexico, campaigns in Carlsbad, N.M. on Oct. 29, 2024 (Nella Domenici Senate campaign)

But Domenici, who’s trying to narrow the gap with Heinrich, sees down-ballot benefits to Trump’s stop at the airport in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

“People are really excited to have Trump come here,” she told Fox News. “It definitely excites the base hugely and the base is kind of a growing term.”

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Domenici argued that “we have so many problems in our state that finally people are saying ‘I give up on the Democrats and I want to be a Republican’ and it’s happening every day, every week, of this race.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) listens during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Federal Electric Vehicle Incentives on January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

“A lot of Hispanic Democrats are coming over to our side. They’re mad that the cost of living is so high. They’re mad that crime is everywhere. You can’t even go get gas in your car at night,” Domenici claimed. “There’s a lot of momentum for people to want to vote Republican.”

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Domenici has decades of experience in the finance industry at Bridgewater Associates (where she served as chief financial officer), Credit Suisse and Citadel Investment group.

Republican Senate candidate Nella Domenici campaigns in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on May 14, 2024 (Domenici campaign)

She’s also the daughter of the late longtime Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who served for 36 years in the Senate before retiring at the beginning of 2009 at the end of his sixth term.

The legacy of her father, who died in 2017, gives the younger Domenici a powerful political brand and plenty of name recognition in New Mexico.

“My family’s name has absolutely helped me a huge amount. It’s because my father’s legacy is so deeply appreciated here by multiple generations,” she emphasized. “A lot of people still have very warm hearts for him.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.