Republican Party of New Mexico Escalates Internal War to State Supreme Court as Chair Amy Barela Fights to Keep Power

ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The bitter civil war fracturing New Mexico’s Republican Party reached the state’s highest court this week, as party Chairwoman Amy Barela and the Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) filed an emergency petition with the New Mexico Supreme Court, refusing to accept a district court ruling that effectively stripped her of her chairmanship.

Filed at 11:50 PM on May 28, 2026, the Emergency Verified Petition for Writ of Superintending Control and Request for Immediate Stay — case number S-1-SC-41439 — asks the Supreme Court to intervene and overturn the order of Valencia County District Judge Cindy M. Mercer of the Thirteenth Judicial District.

The Judge’s Order

Judge Mercer’s temporary injunction landed like a grenade inside an already volatile party. The order prohibits Barela, RNC Committeeman Sen. Jim Townsend, and Treasurer Kimberly Skaggs from publicly supporting any Republican candidate in a contested primary — on pain of criminal contempt. It also appears to direct Barela to turn over the party chairmanship to the First Vice Chair, though the RPNM noted the order’s duration remains unclear and stopped short of formally declaring the chair position vacant or ordering new elections.

In a public statement, RPNM Executive Director Leticia Muñoz confirmed the party would comply while fighting back. “The Republican Party of New Mexico strongly contends that this order is a prior restraint on free speech, in violation of the First Amendment,” Muñoz said. “However, the Party will comply fully with what it understands the order to require, for as long as it remains in effect, and we are in the process of appealing to a higher court.”

The Other Side Fires Back

The opposing faction, led by attorney A. Blair Dunn — himself a named Real Party in Interest in the Supreme Court petition — wasted no time posting a draft response on social media, calling the appeal “another ill-advised, if not frivolous, move.”

Dunn’s argument is pointed: the district court didn’t censor anyone. It enforced a contract. The RPNM’s own Uniform State Rules, he argues, are binding on all party officers. Under USR 1-4-4, when Barela filed to run for the Otero County Commission on the same day a fellow Republican filed for that same seat, the rule’s mandatory language — that an officer “shall immediately vacate the party office” — triggered automatically. Separately, USR 1-4-3 bars party officers from using party resources to take sides in contested primaries, something Dunn contends Barela’s faction did openly.

“The Real Parties in Interest asked the District Court for one thing — to hold the Petitioners to the Rules they wrote, adopted, and publish as the law of their Party,” Dunn wrote.

A Supreme Court Long Shot?

Legal observers note the RPNM faces a steep climb. A writ of superintending control is among the most extraordinary remedies available in New Mexico courts, typically reserved for cases where a lower court has acted far outside its jurisdiction and no adequate remedy exists. Dunn’s draft response argues the petitioners fail on every element — they have an adequate remedy through appeal and modification at the district court level, the legal questions involved are far from novel, and the constitutional free speech argument is misplaced.

“Enforcing a party’s own neutrality rule against its own officers is not a government prior restraint on a citizen,” the response argues. “It is the Party’s First Amendment freedom of association at work.”

A Party at War With Itself

What makes this fight remarkable is that it is entirely self-inflicted. This is not Democrats versus Republicans — it is Republicans versus Republicans, with party bylaws, primary elections, and the very definition of who controls the RPNM at the center of the conflict. With primary season in full swing, the stakes could not be higher, as the injunction effectively silences the party’s top leadership from influencing the outcomes of contested Republican races.

Whether the New Mexico Supreme Court intervenes — or leaves Barela and her allies to fight through ordinary appellate channels — the damage to party unity may already be done. With factions publicly airing legal briefs on Facebook and the state’s GOP leadership hauled before multiple courts, the Republican Party of New Mexico heads into a critical election season looking less like a unified political force and more like a party at war with itself.

The New Mexico Supreme Court had not yet issued a response to the emergency petition at time of publication.

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