Ben Luján

New Mexico State University recently announced its annual Domenici Public Policy Conference will return to Las Cruces in September after an eight-year hiatus.

“Universities play a pivotal role in stimulating and facilitating the kinds of discussions that shape policy, engage our citizenry, and spark curiosity and passion in our students,” NMSU President Valerio Ferme stated in a news release.

From 2008 through 2018, the Domenici Institute convened policy experts, scholars and leaders in business, politics and the armed forces to engage in forums with students and guests over two days. The institute and conference were founded by former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who retired upon completing his sixth term in 2009.

The conference’s return is set to begin with a dinner event on Sept. 8 featuring a keynote address by University of Texas at El Paso President Heather Wilson, a former New Mexico congresswoman who sought to succeed Domenici in the 2008 Republican primary. She later served as secretary of the U.S. Air Force during President Donald Trump’s first term. Wilson has led UTEP since 2019.

On Sept. 9, a full day of presentations is scheduled on topics the university said will encompass “the future of democracy, artificial intelligence, national security, energy geopolitics and the 2026 elections.”

The scheduled keynote speaker for Sept. 9 will be U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., with other speakers to include Chase Untermeyer, the U.S ambassador to Qatar; former Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona; Decision Tree Research CEO Gregory Allen; and David Hill of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The afternoon will feature presentations by New Mexico election candidates Gregg Hull, the Republican candidate for governor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez of southern New Mexico and his Republican challenger, Greg Cunningham. According to the conference website, Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Stephanie Garcia Richard, running on a ticket with Deb Haaland for governor, had been invited to attend as well.

Those presentations are to be followed by a talk on the 2026 midterm elections with commentators Paul Begala and Charlie Black, according to the conference schedule.

The speakers were selected with the assistance of former NMSU Chancellor Garrey Carruthers, a past governor of New Mexico and Domenici’s friend and collaborator through the conference’s first decade.

“For many years, the Domenici Institute and the public policy conference brought to NMSU’s campus some of the top minds in their fields,” Carruthers stated in a news release. “We’ve chosen to explore topics that couldn’t be more timely, and our speaker lineup features experts who can give our attendees crucial insight into their potential impact on our future.”

In keeping with past practice, current NMSU students will present questions to the speakers.

In its first 11 years, the conference drew luminaries including former White House officials and Cabinet secretaries from Democratic and Republican administrations, Congress members, prominent journalists, authors and political commentators.

Domenici’s death in 2017 was announced on the opening day of that year’s conference. In 2019, NMSU announced that after consultation with the Domenici family, the conference would take a break and return in 2020. Its return that year was prevented by the COVID-19 pandemic and has been delayed since then.

NMSU communications director Amanda Wyatt said the conference’s return emerged from discussions earlier this year between Carruthers and Ferme, who proposed reviving the event “as part of our public service mission to the community and the state.”

“There is a national discussion around so many of the topics we’ll cover as part of this year’s conference, everyone felt it just made sense for it to return in 2026,” Wyatt wrote in an email.

The conference will be held at the Las Cruces Convention Center adjacent to the university campus at 680 E. University Avenue. Admission is free for NMSU students and $50 to others, with registration online at NMSU.edu/domenici/.