Two days after Democrats swept the 1930 state election, The Santa Fe New Mexican sounded the alarm about the newfound unreliability of New Mexico’s political leanings.

“There is an argument of long standing as to whether New Mexico is ‘normally Democratic’ or ‘normally Republican,’ ” the paper wrote. “It isn’t normally anything any more. There is no normality about it. New Mexico voters don’t know what normalcy is. Armed with sharpened pencils, they go determinedly into the booths on election day and vote for men and policies quite regardless of how they voted last year, and absolutely unmindful of the tenants of T. Jefferson or A. Lincoln.”

Indeed, the election marked a shift in the political direction the Land of Enchantment typically swings, but the shift would last longer than The

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