Gregg Hull wants to be governor of the state with the highest per-person SNAP participation in America. At two campaign stops in late August, he told the crowd what he thinks those programs do.

With them, he said, "we empower this type of failure."

The comments were recorded without his knowledge, and the Santa Fe New Mexican reported them on September 11. Hull didn't take them back. He defended them.

What he said

On August 29, at a meet-and-greet in Ruidoso, a woman who said she had worked in local schools for ten years told Hull about high school students who couldn't read. Hull said New Mexico needs kids reading on grade level by third grade. Then he turned to the safety net:

"And then as a state, we empower that because if you didn't get through high school the way you thought you should have, we've got every safety net in the world for you right here. We can put you on Medicaid. We can put you on SNAP. We can give you free universal childcare. My opponent wants to do now free universal healthcare. I love when they use the word 'free' because I don't think that they know what that word actually means. But the fact of the matter is we empower this type of failure."

Three days earlier, at an event in Doña Ana County, he pointed to the "huge percentage" of New Mexicans on Medicaid and SNAP, the food assistance program formerly known as food stamps. Then he said this:

"I support these programs as a helping hand, not as a lifestyle. But we've been convinced that this is a lifestyle, and we just have to accept it as a status quo. And as long as I'm getting these benefits, I don't have to do anything for myself."

Who he's talking about

Hull didn't name a small group. He named whole programs. So here's who is actually in them.

• SNAP: About 466,100 New Mexicans got SNAP in 2025, or 21.9% of the state. That's more than one person in five.
• Hunger: About 107,560 New Mexico children face hunger. That's roughly one child in four.
• Medicaid: Medicaid covers about 42% of New Mexicans, the highest share of any state, including about a third of the state's children.
• Child care: Last year New Mexico became the first state in the nation to guarantee free child care to every family, regardless of income, starting November 1, 2025. The state estimated it saves families an average of $12,000 a year per child.

A child in a family on SNAP didn't choose a "lifestyle." Neither did a toddler on Medicaid, or a working parent who can now afford day care. When Hull ties those programs to people who "don't have to do anything" for themselves, that's who he's describing.

His defense

Hull told the New Mexican his words were aimed at the government, not at people who need help.

"When we talk about being upset about the situation, let's not be upset about the person that's pointing it out," he said. "Let's be upset about the government that got us here."

He also said he is "very much in support of making sure that people who need Medicaid get Medicaid, people who need SNAP benefits get those benefits." He added that he backs taxpayer-funded child care "where needed."

Read that next to what he told the crowd. At the campaign stop, universal child care was part of "every safety net in the world" he tied to "this type of failure." In the interview, he supports child care "where needed." That is not the same position. New Mexico's program is universal on purpose: it removed the income limits.

And the point he says he meant is about schools. But the programs he listed weren't schools. They were Medicaid, SNAP and child care, three times in a row, followed by "we empower this type of failure."

Not the first time

This fits a pattern. In April, Source New Mexico asked Hull how he'd handle Trump's cuts. He said that if managing the state's budget "requires some scaling back, then we'll have to look at that. If you don't have the money, you don't have the money." We wrote about that answer, and about how his campaign's health care page never mentions Medicaid at all.

That matters because the cuts are real, and they came from his own party. KFF estimates Trump's 2025 budget law will leave about 80,000 more New Mexicans uninsured by 2034 through its Medicaid changes alone. The next governor decides whether the state tries to catch those people, or lets them fall.

A candidate who says people have been "convinced that this is a lifestyle" and that "we empower this type of failure" is telling voters how he'd make that call.

The bottom line

At two campaign events in August, Gregg Hull listed Medicaid, SNAP and free child care and said the state uses them to "empower this type of failure," and said people have been "convinced that this is a lifestyle." In New Mexico, about 466,100 people get SNAP and Medicaid covers about 42% of the state. Asked about it, Hull defended the remarks.

Source

Hull defends remarks on government dependency in New Mexico — Daniel J. Chacón, Santa Fe New Mexican, September 11, 2026. Photo: Nathan Burton / Santa Fe New Mexican.