Donald Trump threatened last week to run to replace New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, but still wants her to support his candidacy for president.
“I’d like to have it,” Trump said Thursday, when asked by The New Mexican if he’d want an endorsement from her. “I respect her. I have always liked her.”
The country’s only Latina governor and Trump have been at odds for months. Martinez has criticized Trump’s rhetoric on Hispanics and his promise to build a wall along the Mexico border. As the chair of the National Governors Association, she is considered a rising leader in the party.
Last week, Trump hit back at her, criticizing Martinez’s performance at an Albuquerque rally of 8,000 people, citing lost jobs and the increase in use of federal food stamps.
"She has to do a better job, OK? She’s not doing the job,” he said at the rally. “Maybe I’ll run for governor of New Mexico. I’ll get this place going. We’ve got to get her moving.”
Martinez spokesman Michael Lonergan fired back that the governor "will not be bullied into supporting" the candidate, and several Republican leaders came to her defense after Trump’s comments. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called her “the future of the party” on Twitter and House Speaker Paul Ryan praised her for having “turned deficits into surpluses [and] cut taxes."
Martinez has declined so far to endorse her party’s expected nominee, though she has ruled out voting for either Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton or Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, himself a former New Mexico governor. She told the New Mexican Thursday that her position on Trump had not changed. “It’s very important that he address what is needed in New Mexico, in reference to our labs and our military bases. He’s not addressed it yet.”
Trump said to the paper that he will “be adding to New Mexico greatly, building up our military capability,” and ensuring the state is “totally protected.”
Since clinching the Republican nomination last month, Trump has continued to coalesce the party behind his campaign. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, despite declining to endorse Trump for several weeks, said Thursday in an op-ed that he would vote for Trump in November.