Analyst challenges PNM’s assessment of Manning’s popularity

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed is chal­leng­ing the PNM to ex­plain why Bri­an Man­ning’s nar­row 2025 elec­tion vic­to­ry is be­ing used as ev­i­dence of “dwin­dling” pop­u­lar­i­ty when three of the par­ty’s oth­er suc­cess­ful can­di­dates won by sim­i­lar­ly slim or even small­er mar­gins.

Mo­hammed said Man­ning’s 673-vote vic­to­ry must be con­sid­ered along­side the per­for­mance of oth­er suc­cess­ful PNM can­di­dates.

He ques­tioned whether the par­ty con­duct­ed any sci­en­tif­ic as­sess­ment to de­ter­mine why Man­ning’s mar­gin fell from 5,173 votes in 2020 to 673 in 2025, rather than sim­ply at­tribut­ing the de­cline to his per­son­al pop­u­lar­i­ty.