Plagiarism and the New Mexico Governor’s Race

Scheduled to be held in November 2026, the New Mexico gubernatorial election is over one year away. As of this writing, only four candidates have declared for it, three of whom are Democrats hoping to win the primary in June 2026.

However, even though we are currently very early in the election cycle, allegations of plagiarism have already made the news.

The campaign for Deb Haaland, former US Secretary of the Interior, accused Sam Bregman, the district attorney for Bernalillo County, of plagiarizing various parts of his policy plan. Bergman, for his part, said that a team of experts developed his plan, and the copying did not represent plagiarism, calling the allegations “bogus and petty charges.”

He went on to call for Haaland to debate him on the policy proposals.

But this raises a pair of questions: How serious are these plagiarism allegations? And what impact will they likely have on the upcoming election?

The answers to those questions are complicated, but ultimately pretty clear.

Understanding the Allegations

Kevin Hendricks first reported the allegations at the New Mexico Political Report. They address Bregman’s 189-page policy platform, which Bregman unveiled last Thursday. The policy covers a wide variety of issues, including energy infrastructure, children’s nutrition and affordable housing.

After publishing it, he issued an open challenge to Haaland to debate his policies, noting that Haaland does not have a similar statement on her website. Bregman is currently trailing in the polls, and the policy document was seen as a big swing for his campaign.

However, Haaland instead seized upon the fact that some of the text from Bregman’s document came from outside sources without attribution.

For example, a portion of Bregman’s document about Native American education was copied from a 2024 report by the US Commission of Civil Rights. Another section focused on addressing missing and murdered indigenous women contained nearly identical language to a New Mexico Legislature fact sheet.

In addition to the alleged plagiarism, Haaland’s campaign manager also stated that Bregman’s policy was riddled with typos and other writing errors. He said that parts of it were “absolute gibberish.”

According to Bregman’s campaign, they worked with a “team of experts” to draft the proposal, and the “plans were never about taking credit.” Instead, they aimed to elevate the voices of those who helped create them.

But is that actually the case? In a way, yes.

The Problem with Policy Plagiarism

In the Albuquerque Journal article, author Dan Boyd interviewed University of New Mexico political science professor Gabriel Sanchez. Sanchez said that such allegations tend to revolve around politicians’ speeches, not their policy plans.

This is mainly true. However, there have been exceptions. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Donald Trump have all faced allegations of plagiarism in policy statements, op-eds or similar documents.

However, none of those allegations really stuck. That’s because copying in policy statements and position papers is relatively common, often with limited attribution. The reason for this is straightforward: having identical wording ensures a consistent message is conveyed. It’s more important to be accurate than original.

In that regard, policy statements are often compared to legal writing where, as one author put it, “Exercising originality in word choice is often damn near malpractice.”

To be clear, this doesn’t justify the complete lack of attribution. Voters still have a right to know where the policies and information are coming from, as well as what entities are influencing these statements. But reusing language in this space is very different than reusing it in a book, a speech, or a space where originality is expected.

So, while the copied text isn’t good, it’s not the end of the world. Ultimately, it seems like Bregman and his policy have much bigger problems.

The Bigger Issue

In an ideal universe, Bregman’s team would have quoted all this text and clearly cited all the sources used. However, policy statements are typically not meant to be wholly original or new documents. Originality is valued less than having an accurate message and good policies; reusing text is generally more acceptable.

However, that’s where the document encounters other issues. According to Haaland’s campaign, the document also contains a slew of other errors, including typos, repeated paragraphs and incoherent passages.

Mistakes can happen to anyone anywhere. I feel reasonably confident that, despite my best efforts, there will be one or two errors in this article. But there is a significant difference between an article written over a couple of hours and a policy statement that is meant to represent your campaign for months.

Bregman was not under any time pressure with this document. The primary is still nine months away. His main opponent hasn’t released her policy statement at all. Any desire to rush this out came from him and/or his campaign.

But that’s what this does. The copied text, typos, and other issues indicate that the document was rushed or drafted carelessly. Those are not words you want to describe your policy statement, especially when you are using it to take a big swing at your opponent.

The document can (and should) be fixed and updated. However, first impressions matter, and in a rush to get ahead of Haaland’s campaign, Bregman made some pretty bad errors.

While I don’t think this spells doom for Bregman’s campaign or his policies, it’s an unforced error that could have been avoided with more time and energy.

Bottom Line

Ultimately, this story will likely amount to nothing more than a footnote in the campaign. I say that for three separate reasons.

First, plagiarism stories in politics, particularly in the US, rarely sway elections. But, even if they did, Bregman is already behind by 36 points according to polling. It would hardly be his biggest problem.

Second, it is incredibly early in the election cycle. If something like this had come out in May or June, it might have been a bigger deal. But with nearly a year to go until the primaries, this will likely slip from people’s minds, if Bregman is even still in the race at the time.

Finally, it involves a policy paper. As we discussed, policy papers have a lower threshold for originality, and it’s unlikely that any of the plagiarized parties will complain about it. Though they aren’t the only potential victim in this story, their lack of participation will likely cause the story to fade even faster.

Still, this case serves as a reminder that, as we enter yet another election season in the US, plagiarism is an unforced error and a distraction from the message you are trying to convey. Even though Bregman’s transgressions were not particularly severe, they blunted his attempt to get ahead of his opponent.