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Recently, the voters of New Mexico's Republican Party made their choice, and I respect it completely. Gregg Hull ran a strong race, and I congratulate him sincerely.

Politics is competitive, and in a three-way contest, not everyone can win. But I want to be clear about something: My faith in this state 鈥� in its people, its potential and its future 鈥� has not dimmed by a single degree.

I got into this race late, and for reasons that were deeply personal. After losing my wife Mala to breast cancer in January of last year, my first instinct was to step back from the world and focus on my family. My children needed me. I needed them. But somewhere in those quiet, hard months, I kept coming back to the same thought: What kind of New Mexico were we leaving them?

It was actually my 16-year-old daughter who pushed me off the fence. She asked me if I would regret not running. She was right to ask. And no 鈥� I don't regret a single day of it.

What this campaign taught me

I traveled this state from the oil fields of the Permian Basin, to sa国际传媒官网网页入口's South Valley to the ranches of Lincoln County. Everywhere I found the same thing: New Mexicans who are proud of where they live and frustrated that their state keeps falling short of what it could be.

We are a state of extraordinary natural wealth and human talent. We have one of the most culturally rich histories in the entire country. We sit at the crossroads of a rapidly evolving energy economy 鈥� one where oil and gas revenues are funding our schools even as the next generation of energy infrastructure is being built all around us. We have universities producing world-class researchers. And we have small business owners who are tough, creative and tolerant of our challenging business environment because they love it here.

And yet our kids still rank near the bottom nationally in reading and math. Too many of our families are leaving for Texas, Arizona, Colorado 鈥� anywhere they feel their children will have a better shot. Our tax burden discourages exactly the kind of entrepreneurial energy that could transform our economy. We have been, for too long, a state that accepts mediocrity as the price of stability.

That is not the New Mexico I believe in.

What I hope this fall brings

I didn't agree with Hull on everything, but I watched him campaign with discipline and seriousness. The Republican coalition that showed up across this primary, including the voters in rural and southeastern New Mexico who supported our campaign, is broad and energized. That energy doesn't belong to any one candidate but to the ideas we share.

And those ideas are worth fighting for. School choice isn't a political abstraction 鈥� it is the most direct lever we have for breaking the cycle of poverty that has held too many New Mexican families back for generations. Meaningful tax relief isn't a giveaway to the wealthy 鈥� it is an invitation to entrepreneurs and innovators who are choosing to build their companies somewhere else. Smart development of our energy resources isn't a concession to the past 鈥� it is the bridge that funds our future while we build it.

These aren't my ideas alone. They are what I heard from New Mexicans, in their own words, at every stop along the way.

A personal note

Running for governor while grieving, while raising three kids, while building a business 鈥� it was, to put it mildly, a lot. I am grateful beyond words for every volunteer who knocked on doors, every donor who believed in the vision, and every New Mexican who looked me in the eye and said: We need something different.

To my children: You watched your father bet on himself and on this state at a hard moment in our lives. I hope you saw something worth seeing. I hope you saw that showing up matters 鈥� even when you don't win.

The New Mexico I see

Close your eyes and picture it. A state where a child born in Gallup or Hobbs or Espa帽ola has the same shot at a great education as one born anywhere else in America. A state where a young entrepreneur with a good idea doesn't feel the pull of Austin, Texas, or Phoenix the moment she starts thinking about scaling up. A state where our breathtaking land and sky are stewarded wisely 鈥� not locked away, not recklessly extracted, but managed with the long view in mind by people who live here. A state that takes its seat at the table of the new American economy 鈥� in data infrastructure, energy, in advanced manufacturing, defense and security and more 鈥� rather than watching others build it somewhere else.

That New Mexico is not a fantasy. It is a choice. And the people of this state, given the chance, will choose it. Of that I have never been more certain.

Doug Turner is the founder of Agenda-Global LLC. He recently ran for the Republican nomination for governor.