Egolf drops Senate bid, will seek Wirth’s House seat

Democrat Brian Egolf has decided that he will run for the state House seat being vacated by Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, rather than running against Wirth in a Senate primary next year.

Egolf had been in the Senate District 25 race for months, and, having already raised $85,000, became the frontrunner when Democrat John Grubesic recently announced he would not seek re-election. But with the state Senate seat coming open and U.S. Rep. Tom Udall announcing he would not seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici and create an opening in Washington for Wirth to seek, the representative instead opted last week to run for the seat Grubesic is vacating.

That prompted Egolf to swap races with Wirth and run for the open District 47 House seat.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to run for the District 47 State House seat being vacated by Peter Wirth,” Egolf said. “I am committed to doing what is best for Santa Fe, and I believe that Santa Fe will be best served by having two strong, progressive Democrats serving together in the legislature, not running against each other.”

“Over the past eight months, I have walked door-to-door in many neighborhoods of Santa Fe and Eldorado and have had personal conversations with hundreds of voters about the future of New Mexico,” he said. “It is to represent the concerns of these voters that I remain entirely committed to making sure that New Mexico’s children are able to raise their families in New Mexico and to addressing our urgent needs in education, water and health care.”

Egolf is currently the only candidate in the House race. Activist and Democrat Mekah Gordon is also running for the Senate seat.