Former KRQE chief meteorologist Mark Ronchetti has failed in his bid to defeat Michelle Lujan Grisham to be Governor of New Mexico.
Ronchetti worked for Albuquerque CBS affiliate KRQE from 2006 until 2021. He ran for Senate in 2020.
A few days before the election, Ronchetti alleged a former station employee at NBC affiliate KOB helped his opponent in her 2018 run for governor, by giving her the questions and strategy for a pre-election debate. The station denied the accusations.
In his concession speech, Ronchetti said “The reality is, is we sat in the war room tonight. We started to watch the results come in and what we saw was two New Mexicos. We see a rural New Mexico who feels their voices have been forgotten, and it becomes more and more of a spread. And then you run into an urban New Mexico where there doesn’t seem to be a connection between the two anymore. And so the reality is for our campaign, it will likely come to an end tonight without winning, but I will tell you this: do not give up on this state. Do not give up on the promise of what New Mexico can become.”