On August 11, at a Republican Party of Lea County meet-and-greet in Hobbs, a woman in the audience asked Gregg Hull a very specific question.

Not a general one about cooperating with neighbors. A specific one:

"You mentioned abortion tourism. When you become governor, what will your relationship with Governor Abbott be like? And will you commit to meet with him to address the problem of abortion trafficking to New Mexico and do what we can to reduce Texans coming to New Mexico for abortions?"

Hull's answer, in full, began: "Yeah. Oh no, I'm fully committed to working with Governor Abbott."

He said his team had "already reached out" to Abbott. He said that if Abbott is reelected this fall, "absolutely, we're committed to working with Governor Abbott on all of these issues."

And he closed with this:

"As I said before, I'm pro-life, so we're gonna see what we can do."

The walk-back

A week later, on August 18, the New Mexico Political Report and The Paper. called him about it. Hull said the comments were taken "out of context."

"There was one guy there from Texas — he specifically asked me, are you willing to work with Governor Abbott? I said I'm always willing to work with anybody. Of course they're going to take that out of context, but it is what it is."

Two problems with that.

First, the person who asked was a woman, not "one guy," and the outlet published the transcript. Read it again above. She did not ask whether he'd work with any governor. She asked him to commit to meeting Abbott specifically to reduce the number of Texans getting abortions in New Mexico.

Second, "I'm always willing to work with anybody" is not what he said. What he said was "fully committed," then "absolutely, we're committed," then "I'm pro-life, so we're gonna see what we can do."

Nobody misquoted him. The full transcript is published. What changed between August 11 and August 18 is who was listening.

He also told the reporter that his outreach to Abbott's office was just a hello: "I've reached out to him just to say hello, to make contact, but I haven't had any response back."

Why Hobbs, of all places

The room where Hull said this is not a random room.

Hobbs is one of the New Mexico towns that tried to shut abortion clinics down on its own. In late 2022 and early 2023, Hobbs and Clovis passed ordinances with tough licensing requirements aimed at abortion clinics, built around the Comstock Act — an 1873 federal anti-vice law. Lea County, where Hobbs sits, added a $300 fine for each use of the mail to help someone get an abortion. Roosevelt County went furthest, letting private citizens sue a clinic for at least $100,000 per violation.

On January 9, 2025, the New Mexico Supreme Court blocked all of them, unanimously, because state law overrides them.

So Hull was standing in front of the county that lost that case, being asked to bring in the governor of Texas. And he said he was fully committed.

What "state funds" actually means here

Hull told the reporter his real objection is narrower — he doesn't want New Mexico taxpayers paying for abortions for people from other states.

"Right now our state funds out-of-state parties coming in to pay for those procedures here in the state. I don't think our taxpayers should be paying for that. If we have out-of-state individuals coming here and receiving services at the expense of New Mexicans, that's a problem for me."

Understand the scale of what that touches. New Mexico borders two states with total abortion bans — Texas and Oklahoma — and it has become one of the country's main destinations for people traveling for care as a result. The Guttmacher Institute counted 8,230 patients who traveled from out of state to get abortion care in New Mexico in just the first six months of 2023, one of the largest increases in interstate travel anywhere in the country.

That is the population Hull is describing. A policy aimed at "out-of-state parties" in New Mexico is not a small carve-out — it points at a large share of everyone the state's clinics see, and the woman who asked the question in Hobbs clearly understood that. She said so out loud: "reduce Texans coming to New Mexico for abortions."

"Unless the legislature flips"

Hull's other defense is that he couldn't change the law anyway. "The legislature has passed the law, and unless the legislature flips, this doesn't change." He told the reporter it wasn't fair to say he'd roll back reproductive rights because "I wouldn't have the authority to do that without legislative support."

That is a statement about arithmetic, not about what he wants. He is not saying he wouldn't. He is saying he couldn't — yet. In the same breath he said he isn't currently backing candidates or legislation on the issue.

A governor has a veto pen, an appointments list, a budget, and a bully pulpit. Hull is telling New Mexicans that none of that counts because the legislature is the legislature. He is also telling a room in Hobbs that he's pro-life and "we're gonna see what we can do."

Both of those cannot be the honest version.

This is the pattern

It is the same move we've watched Hull make on other issues. He wouldn't rule out "scaling back" Medicaid in the state where Medicaid covers 42% of residents — more than any other state in the country. He wants voter ID across New Mexico, the state that wrote the first Native American Voting Rights Act. And he'd like to cool AI data centers with fracking wastewater in a state running out of water.

Say the hard thing to the friendly room. Soften it for the reporter. Hope nobody plays the tape.

This time somebody printed the transcript.

Hull faces Democratic U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland in November.

Source

Kevin Hendricks, "Hull says he is 'fully committed' to working with Texas Gov. Abbot to stop New Mexico aid for Texans seeking abortions in New Mexico", The Paper. and New Mexico Political Report, August 18, 2026. Photo: Source New Mexico.