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When Gregg Hull found out he had been elected mayor of Rio Rancho in 2014, he was just walking through the door of his own watch party.
Hull and his wife, Carrie, had spent election night at a church service, phones in the trunk. By the time they arrived, the crowd was already saying congratulations. “That was the first we had heard about it,” Hull recalled.
Twelve years, three terms and one historic tenure later, he is preparing to leave office as the longest-serving mayor in the 43-year history of the City of Vision — and he still sounds a little surprised it happened at all.
Hull came to politics not from government but from business. He had just sold a small company when he started noticing how hard it was for Rio Rancho entrepreneurs to navigate basic city processes. Getting a business license, he found, was needlessly complicated. When he started raising the issue with other business owners, they turned the question back on him.
“People started pointing at me and saying, ‘Well, you’re a former business guy. So why don’t you do something about it?'”
He Googled how to run for mayor. He won.
12 years later, Hull is preparing to say goodbye to the City of Vision as he eyes the Republican nomination for governor later this year.
In an interview with The 528, Hull reflected on his transition from a “community citizen” with no political background in 2014 to the leader of what he describes as the state’s second-largest city.
A city transformed
Hull inherited a city still digging out from the recession. Road repairs had stalled. Business development had flatlined. Intel, the city’s anchor employer, felt like it had “one foot out the door.”
Hull and successive city councils responded with a road bond that has since paved more than 38 major roadways, public safety bonds that helped first responders meet growing demand, and a sustained push to recruit businesses and create jobs. Intel stayed — and expanded.
Rio Rancho has become the fastest-growing city in New Mexico and is now closing in on becoming the state’s second-largest city.
Residents have seen the results, Hull said. The city now ranks among the top in the state for low crime, quality of life and best place to raise a family. Its utility bond rating recently reached the second-highest level possible — a distinction that keeps more public money flowing into infrastructure rather than to banks and investors.
What he didn’t finish
Hull is candid about what he’s leaving undone — and residents in some corners of the city are still waiting.
More roads remain unrepaired than he would have liked. Families on the north end, in the Enchanted Hills area, are still without a public swimming pool. A new community center is still years from breaking ground. And the former golf course property, private land outside the city’s direct control, still has no clear future despite a completed master plan.
“That’s really the one thing I look back on and say, man, there was nothing I could really do about it,” Hull said of the golf course. “It was outside of my control because it was private property.”
He said he hopes the next mayor carries those items forward — along with the institutional knowledge of city staff he credits with much of Rio Rancho’s progress.
What’s next
Hull is running for governor — a path, he acknowledged, that wasn’t on his radar any more than the mayor’s office was in 2014.
“My first blush, it was no — not really on the bucket list,” he said. “And then I thought to myself, wow, that’s exactly what I said when I ran for mayor the first time.”
As for whether he might one day return to lead Rio Rancho again, Hull didn’t close the door — but said it’s not what he’s focused on.
“I’ve been the mayor for 12 years. I’m proud of what we did, and it’s time to move on.”
Hull, Rio Rancho’s longest-serving mayor, is the city’s 12th mayor, is the only one to have been elected to three consecutive terms, joining Thomas Swisstack as the only mayors to serve a decade or more.
The decision on his successor will be made in the April 14 mayoral runoff election, where City Councilor Paul Wymer faces challenger Alexandria Piland.
Who succeeds Hull? Rio Rancho Mayoral Runoff — April 14
- Paul Wymer (City Councilor) vs. Alexandria Piland (former Sandoval County Democratic Party chair)
- Wymer led the six-candidate March primary with 45% (6,237 votes); Piland finished second with 27% (3,662 votes)
- Voter registration and polling locations: rrnm.gov/rrvotes
Hull’s next race New Mexico Governor Election
- Republican primary: Gregg Hull vs. Duke Rodriguez vs. Doug Turner
- Democratic primary: Sam Bregman vs. Deb Haaland
- Primary date: June 2
- General election: Nov. 3