{"id":4480,"date":"2025-12-17T13:50:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:50:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:50:56","slug":"legal-weed-kingpin-duke-rodriguez-runs-for-governor-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=4480","title":{"rendered":"(Legal) weed kingpin Duke Rodriguez runs for governor in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Duke Rodriguez, one of New Mexico\u2019s most successful cannabis entrepreneurs and a former state cabinet secretary, has officially announced he\u2019s seeking the Republican nomination for governor.<\/p>\n

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Rather than hosting a big party, Rodriguez made the announcement in newspaper advertisements over the weekend, saying he would rather engage with residents directly and ask for their help in sharing his ideas. Rodriguez cited guaranteed health care, improving the state\u2019s education system, fighting crime and safeguarding New Mexico\u2019s public retirement system as priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not asking for money. I\u2019m asking for a running mate. You,\u201d he wrote in the ads.<\/p>\n

After several high-profile potential Republican candidates passed on the race, the Ultra Health president and chief executive decided to make his move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat back hoping there would be a stronger candidate that I could support,\u201d Rodriguez told the Albuquerque Journal on Monday. \u201cTruthfully, that never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez joins a GOP field that includes Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and state Sen. Steve Lanier of Aztec.<\/p>\n

Reaching the governor\u2019s office won\u2019t be easy. No Republican has won election to statewide office since former Supreme Court Justice Judith Nakamura did so in 2016.<\/p>\n

A three-way race for the Democratic nomination is underway between former congresswoman and U.S.\u00a0Interior Secretary Deb Haaland,\u00a0Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman\u00a0and former four-term Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.<\/p>\n

Before launching Ultra Health in 2010, Rodriguez served as secretary of New Mexico\u2019s Human Services Department under former Gov. Gary Johnson and was a senior executive for Lovelace Health System. Ultra Health has become New Mexico\u2019s largest medical cannabis company.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez already has faced questions about his eligibility due to a requirement in the state Constitution that candidates must have \u201cresided continually\u201d in the state for at least five years before being elected.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, who owns houses in Albuquerque and Scottsdale, Arizona, contends the residency requirement is a nonissue. He said he has maintained a residence in New Mexico since first moving to the state as a teenager in 1971.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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#Legal #weed #kingpin #Duke #Rodriguez #runs #governor #Mexico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duke Rodriguez, one of New Mex… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3610,3367,2436,4263,4260,4258,1021,4257,4261,4262,4259],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}