GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Ronchetti has accepted a donation for $1,000 from one of New Mexico’s fake electors, Rosalind Tripp, who tried to falsely and illegally get New Mexico’s electoral votes to be cast for President Trump in 2020. President Joe Biden won New Mexico by 10 percentage points.
Following the release of a list of Republican electors who certified fake election certificates in January declaring that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas moved the matter up the ladder to the feds.
According to his most recent campaign finance filing, on Aug. 19th, Ronchetti accepted a $1,000 check from Donald Tripp Jr., the husband of Rosalind Tripp, who is a New Mexico fake elector. Tripp Jr. also happens to be the former Speaker of New Mexico’s House of Representatives. Rosalind Tripp is a former committee member of the Republican National Committee.
This isn’t the first time the Ronchetti campaign has accepted a donation from a fake elector. Ronchetti previously took $2,000 from Republican businessman Lupe Garcia of Santa Cruz, NM.
Of five fake electors, Jewll Powdrell, a retired businessman from Rio Rancho and member of the United Black Conservatives of New Mexico and Deborah W. Maestas, the former Chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico were subpoenaed by the Congressional Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
In the past, Ronchetti showed support for President Trump, but has shied away from answering whether or not he believes Biden was the duly elected president.
According to the campaign filings in September, Democrat incumbent Michelle Lujan Grisham raised more than $10 million dollars for her re-election campaign. Ronchetti was trailing at more than $6 million.