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New Mexico
The Land of Enchantment, high desert and southern Rockies
New Mexico is high, dry, and luminous — a state of mesas, desert basins, and the southern end of the Rocky Mountains, where the clear thin air at elevation gives the light a quality artists have chased for a century. Most of the state sits above 4,000 feet, and the Rio Grande splits it down the middle, running from the Colorado mountains in the north to Texas in the south. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains tower over Santa Fe and Taos, while the south opens into the Chihuahuan Desert.
The land holds singular places: the blinding white gypsum dunes of White Sands, the underground chambers of Carlsbad Caverns, and the volcanic fields and lava flows of the malpais. Wheeler Peak, the high point at 13,161 feet (4,011 m), rises in the northern Sangre de Cristos. The combination of high desert, mountains, and three deep cultural roots — Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo — gives New Mexico a character distinct from its neighbors. Albuquerque, on the Rio Grande, anchors the population, with historic Santa Fe as the nation's highest state capital.
Economy
New Mexico's economy leans on oil and gas - the Permian Basin extends into the southeast - and on a major federal presence: the national laboratories at Los Alamos and Sandia and the missile range at White Sands. Tourism and the arts around Santa Fe and Taos, and a fast-growing film industry, add to a state with a large share of public land.
Politics
New Mexico carries 5 electoral votes and leans Democratic in presidential elections. It has one of the largest Hispanic population shares of any state and a significant Native American population, while the oil-rich southeast leans Republican.