Haaland promises kids will ‘read sooner’ if she wins as NM ranks dead last

Far-left Democrat Deb Haaland is being promoted by national Democrats as the candidate who will help New Mexico children “read sooner” — even as the state remains buried at the bottom of the nation in education after years of Democrat control in Santa Fe.

The Democratic Governors Association posted a clip from Haaland’s MS NOW interview, writing, “Deb Haaland is running for governor of New Mexico so kids can read sooner, families can get the healthcare they need, and life can be more affordable for every New Mexican.”

But the short clip, which appears tightly edited, offered another reminder of Haaland’s halting and awkward public speaking style. Critics have long noted that Haaland often leans heavily on scripted lines, biography, and broad talking points rather than clear, detailed answers — a problem that followed her during her time in Washington and during congressional hearings while she served as Joe Biden’s secretary of the interior.

In the clip, Haaland attempted to frame herself as the most experienced candidate in the race.

“When I was secretary, of course, I have a record of accomplishment,” Haaland said. “I managed a department with 70,000 career staff, an $18 billion annual budget.”

She added, “I’m the only one with experience like that who is running for governor, and I want to use that experience and knowledge for the benefit of New Mexico.”

For Haaland’s allies, that is supposed to be the pitch: she ran a massive federal agency, so she is ready to run New Mexico.

But for conservatives, her tenure at Interior looked far more ceremonial than impressive. Haaland became a national symbol for the Biden administration’s identity politics and climate agenda, but when pressed in congressional hearings on basic policy questions involving energy, public lands, and federal land management, she often struggled to give direct, coherent answers.

That matters because Haaland is now asking voters to trust her with New Mexico’s education system, health care access, affordability crisis, and public safety problems.

In the MS NOW clip, Haaland continued, “I was also a congresswoman, so I know how the federal government works.”

She then said she is “ready to work for New Mexicans, so kids can read sooner, so people can get health care when they need it, so life can be more affordable for every New Mexican, regardless of where they live.”

The line about children reading sooner is especially rich.

New Mexico’s education system is already in crisis. After years of Democrat control of the governor’s office, Legislature, and education bureaucracy, the state remains at or near the bottom nationally. Recent national reading data show New Mexico fourth graders and eighth graders performing well below national averages, with only about one in five students at or above proficient in reading.

That is not a messaging problem. That is a generational failure.

Democrats have had every lever of power in Santa Fe. They have increased spending. They have expanded bureaucracy. They have pushed woke education priorities. And yet New Mexico children still cannot read at acceptable levels.

Now national Democrats are packaging Haaland as the answer.

But the DGA clip may have created the opposite impression. Instead of showing a dynamic leader with a specific plan to turn around New Mexico schools, it showed Haaland leaning on vague promises and federal credentials.

There were no specifics in the clip about how Haaland would improve reading scores. No explanation of what she would do differently from outgoing Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. No plan for fixing a broken education system controlled by Democrats for years.

Instead, voters heard the familiar Haaland formula: mention the Biden administration, cite the size of the federal department she nominally led, and promise broad outcomes without telling New Mexicans how she would actually deliver them.

For conservative New Mexicans, the irony is hard to miss.

A candidate whose public interviews often require careful packaging is being sold as the leader who will help children read sooner. A Democrat backed by the same political machine that presided over New Mexico’s education collapse is now promising to fix it. And a former Biden cabinet secretary with a record of vague, halting answers is asking voters to believe she can competently manage the state.

Haaland is not running away from the Biden-Haaland record. She is running on it.

The same goes for New Mexico Democrats’ education record. They own it. The low reading scores, the national embarrassment, the decades of excuses, and the failure to produce basic results all happened under their watch.

The DGA wants voters to see Haaland as a historic candidate with federal experience and a feel-good promise to help kids “read sooner.”

But New Mexicans may see something else: another far-left Democrat wrapped in national media polish, offering scripted slogans, Biden-era credentials, and no real evidence that anything would change. Haaland’s Republican competitor is former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, who has years of executive experience.