On November 2, 2021, the city of Albuquerque will host its quadrennial mayoral election to select who will lead the city for the next four years. Incumbent Democratic Mayor Tim Keller is running for reelection, as are others. This is an officially nonpartisan election, so party labels will not appear beside the candidates’ names on the ballot.

In late March, Keller, who is still in his first term, launched his bid for reelection, touting the city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Along with the state’s response to the disease, Keller has generally been applauded on a federal level. The state and city have been at a better place with regard to COVID-19 than neighboring states and cities just about since the start of the pandemic, spare a few times where the numbers jumped quite high late last year. “Shepherding our city, leading our city, making those tough decisions was a trial like no other. I think it’s shown we are tested by a crisis our city has not seen in decades, or in modern history”, Mayor Keller said as he announced his candidacy.

Manny Gonzales, the Bernalillo County sheriff, who brands himself as a tough-on-crime and bipartisan candidate is also running for mayor. Gonzales, who registers as a democrat, displayed pictures of himself with both former President Barack Obama, and Former Attorney General under Former President Donald Trump William Barr in his announcement video, likely trying to visually convey the case that he can work in a bipartisan manner.

Michael Bevins, former organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential bids, is also running for mayor-on a platform that shares a handful of notable similarities with that of many other progressive candidates nationwide. Bevins supports a local medicare for all-like health care system, and he also supports demilitarizing the Albuquerque police department, and a carbon tax, to incentivize the use of fossil fuels, which contributes to the ongoing climate crisis.

Patrick Ben Sais is also running for mayor, though no publicly available information about his policy priorities was available at this time.