Juan de Jesus Sanchez III defeated Matthew McQueen and Jonas Moya in Tuesday’s Democratic primary and will face Republican Michael Perry in November.

Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Juan de Jesus Sanchez III has defeated two opponents in the Democratic primary to become his party’s nominee for commissioner of public lands.

As of 9:31 p.m. on Tuesday, Sanchez earned 55% of the vote. His closest competitor, state Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo), received 34% of the vote and conceded the race a little after 9 p.m. The third opponent, Jonas Moya, received a little over 11% of the votes.

Sanchez, 34, who once served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a natural resources specialist and as U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s political director, will face Republican Michael Perry in the general election taking place in November.

The Land Office oversees more than 9 million surface acres of land across New Mexico, tasked with holding them in trust and generating revenue to benefit public institutions, including schools. 

Neither Sanchez nor his campaign immediately responded to Source NM’s request for comment late Tuesday. But, in a recent interview, Sanchez said he would like to diversify the office’s revenue streams to be less dependent on oil and gas, including the use of renewable energy alternatives like geothermal and “very particular” parcels for housing. 

He said he hopes to bring his on-the-ground perspective to the office as someone who “won’t really be making our decisions from a desk in Santa Fe looking at lines on a map and dollars on a spreadsheet.”

Sanchez also received criticism from his opponents about an out-of-state super PAC that threw money behind his campaign. The super PAC — the American Energy Action Fund — is now the subject of a State Ethics Commission complaint.

McQueen also criticized Sanchez when an oil-funded PAC spent more than $400,000 on television advertisements supporting Sanchez. In both cases, Sanchez denied any involvement with or prior knowledge of the advertisements. 

In a statement late Tuesday to Source NM, McQueen said he was “proud” his campaign said “no to out-of-state oil and gas, and I will always be proud that we did the right thing.” 

“New Mexico’s public lands are special,” he added. “I hope our next Land Commissioner will take this important job as seriously as I would have.”

Patrick Lohmann is a reporter for Source New Mexico.