{"id":36435,"date":"2012-02-09T11:45:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T18:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=36435"},"modified":"2012-02-10T07:44:54","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T14:44:54","slug":"its-official-sanchez-quits-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/its-official-sanchez-quits-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official: Sanchez quits Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lt.<\/a>

Lt. Gov. John Sanchez<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018A bitter and divisive Republican primary would only diminish our party\u2019s genuine opportunity to bring real change in Washington,\u2019 Sanchez says.<\/h4>\n

Seven days after NMPolitics.net reported that Republican John Sanchez<\/a> had decided to drop out of the race to replace the retiring\u00a0Jeff Bingaman<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. Senate, Sanchez announced today that he\u2019s doing just that.<\/p>\n

Sanchez cited the need for GOP unity as a factor in his decision to quit the race, but didn\u2019t endorse the frontrunner in the Republican Senate primary, Heather Wilson<\/a>, or her only remaining opponent, Greg Sowards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bitter and divisive Republican primary would only diminish our party\u2019s genuine opportunity to bring real change in Washington,\u201d Sanchez said in a news release. \u201cThe reality is that the path forward to success in the campaign could cause a negative primary struggle that would leave the eventual nominee bruised, bloody and broke.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes in spite of the Sanchez campaign\u2019s insistence a week ago that NMPolitics.net\u2019s report<\/a> was erroneous and that Sanchez had \u201cmade no plans to exit the Senate race.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net stood by its report, which was based on statements from a source with knowledge of the situation and Sanchez\u2019s own refusal to directly answer when NMPolitics.net asked if he would \u201cswear\u201d that he\u2019s not dropping out of the Senate race. Sanchez instead said, \u201cI can tell you as of today I am a candidate for the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read last week\u2019s NMPolitics.net report here<\/a>. You can also read about the Sanchez campaign raising just over $100,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011, and repaying the candidate $100,000 for a loan he had previously made, by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even before NMPolitics.net\u2019s report, many suspected that Sanchez\u2019s campaign was coming to an end. While Sanchez continued to raise money, there was little activity on his\u00a0campaign website<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter account<\/a>\u00a0during the last three months of 2011 and January, and he missed many GOP events the other candidates attended.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s full statement<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the full statement Sanchez released today announcing his withdrawal from the race:<\/p>\n

\u201cEight months ago, our campaign for the U.S. Senate began with one clear objective: to give New Mexicans the opportunity to send conservative leadership to Washington D.C.\u00a0 The timing on this race was not ideal nor did we choose it. But the need for a conservative leader from New Mexico is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the course of this campaign, it has become clear to me, that in order to ensure that a Republican is elected to represent New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, the G.O.P must stand united. A bitter and divisive Republican Primary would only diminish our party\u2019s genuine opportunity to bring real change in Washington. The reality is that the path forward to success in the campaign could cause a negative primary struggle that would leave the eventual nominee bruised, bloody and broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter much prayer, counsel with my family, and discussions with supporters, I have decided to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate, and continue to serve New Mexico as your Lt. Governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to express my sincere thanks to those New Mexicans who joined our campaign. I am forever grateful for the support we received from grassroots leaders, tea party patriots, business owners, GOP activists and everyday citizens. They offered their efforts and their dollars and it meant the world to me. This was not my time, but I will never forget their friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am redirecting myself today to helping our party advance the strongest slate of candidates to victory in November, from the Roundhouse to the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that you will join me in working with Governor Martinez, and all conservatives to complete the important work that we have begun in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay God Bless and Keep You, and may God Bless America and New Mexico.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven days after NMPolitics.net reported that Republican John Sanchez had decided to drop out of the race to replace the retiring Jeff Bingaman in the U.S. Senate, Sanchez announced today that he\u2019s doing just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,107,267,116],"class_list":["post-36435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-u-s-senate","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}