GOP Senate Candidate Larry Marker Leads a Far-Right Movement to Split New Mexico

Unearthed social media posts expose Marker as leader of an unhinged effort to create a new U.S. territory out of eastern New Mexico

Recently unearthed social media posts expose Republican U.S. Senate candidate Larry Marker as the leader of the Chisum Territory Alliance, a far-right movement to secede twelve eastern counties from New Mexico, revert these counties to a U.S. territory, and ultimately create a new state.

Larry Marker, who goes by Larry “Lead” Marker on Facebook, is known for being the Republican write-in candidate for U.S. Senate after the New Mexico GOP failed to find anyone able to qualify to be on their primary election ballot earlier this year, but voters don’t know just how extreme his far-right anti-New Mexico views really are.

Unlike David Gallegos’ plan to give southeastern New Mexico counties to Texas through both states’ legislatures, Marker’s plan involves creating a whole new U.S. territory called “Chisum” through congressional approval. Even posting that “NM STATE GOVERNMENT HAS NO PART IN APPROVING THIS EFFORT. WE ARE GOING OVER THE STATES HEAD,” just nine days before announcing his campaign for U.S. Senate.

“It’s a shame that Larry Marker of Roswell is running to represent New Mexico in the Senate when he doesn’t even want Roswell to be in New Mexico,” said Democratic Party of New Mexico Spokesperson Daniel Garcia. “The few New Mexicans who know who Larry Marker is don't know about his crackpot scheme to rip away over a third of our counties in eastern New Mexico and turn them into a brand new U.S. territory. We always knew that Larry Marker is as cartoonishly MAGA of a candidate as we’ve ever seen in New Mexico, but his Chisum Territory Alliance movement isn’t just absurd; it’s dangerously extreme.”

Marker seems to believe that “Trump could get this (Chisum) done and it would be the greatest F.A.F.O in history.” Part of his motivation is another far-right effort to change congressional maps before the midterm election because he believes New Mexico has been “captured by the progressive liberals.”

Although the Chisum Territory Alliance website does not explain why Marker wants to name his new territory “Chisum,” it is likely an homage to John Simpson Chisum, a 19th-century Texan slave owner and supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War, who eventually settled near present-day Roswell, New Mexico.