Republican Yvette Herrell claims New Mexico was stolen from Trump in 2020. It wasn’t.

Republican U.S. House candidate Yvette Herrell said the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Herrell has a history of flirting with election denialism.

Herrell, a Republican, represented New Mexico’s 2nd district from 2021 to 2023. She lost her 2022 reelection bid to Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez. Herrell and Vasquez will have a rematch this November.

Herrell made the statement in an August 2021 meeting with the Sierra County Republican Party. In unearthed video footage from the event, Herrell recounts meeting with Trump and discussing the outcome of the presidential race.

“[Trump] started talking about stuff and it was all New Mexico,” Herrell said. “He goes, ‘Yvette, Did I win New Mexico?’ and I go ‘hell yeah you did and they cheated!’” 

President Joe Biden won New Mexico in 2020 by nearly 100,000 ballots. He was awarded all of the state’s five electoral votes. There is no evidence that any fraud of malfeasance contributed to Biden’s victory.

Herrell voted against certifying the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021. Five months later, she voted against forming an independent commission to investigate the attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Associates of Trump recruited so-called “fake electors” to sign bogus documents asserting that Trump actually won New Mexico and a handful of other states. The purpose of this ruse was to disrupt the certification of the election. Deborah Maestas, a prolific Republican donor from New Mexico, was one of the individuals recruited to participate in this scheme. In 2022, Herrell accepted a $2,900 donation from Maestas, the maximum contribution allowed for individual donors.

Herrell has endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The race in New Mexico’s 2nd district is expected to be one of the most competitive House races this year. A Herrell spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment to this story.