Legacy Church senior pastor Steve Smotherman took to his Albuquerque pulpit last month to call out Republican Mark Ronchetti for lying to New Mexicans. The pastor said that Ronchetti told him his plan was to ban abortion in New Mexico, even though the candidate for governor has spent the last few months trying to skirt that claim and hide from the extremist abortion ban he vowed to uphold.

“I assure you, he told me exactly what I said. Exactly. But he got on TV and said he didn’t,” Smotherman said in his sermon recorded Wednesday, October 19th– confirming that Ronchetti did tell him his plan was to ban abortion and accusing the candidate of lying about it on TV, as reported by the Albuquerque Journal.

Smotherman has played a significant role in the race after first making news in July confirming Ronchetti’s controversial stance to ban all abortions. In the original sermon, Smothermon said, “His goal would be to end abortion in New Mexico. You say, how do I know that? Because I talked to him for hours.”

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham brought up the pastor in a debate against Mark Ronchetti, stating, “Mark Ronchetti wants to ban abortion. If you don’t believe me, ask his pastor, Pastor Smothermon.” Mark Ronchetti ignored it, but when asked directly about Pastor Smothermon’s claims by one of the debate moderators, Ronchetti deflected, saying “You’d have to ask Pastor Smothermon that, but I told him everything I’ve told everybody else in this (race).”

Well, Pastor Smotherman answered that very pointed question and explicitly stated that Mark Ronchetti is lying to the voters, and he did in fact tell the pastor that his plan was to ban all abortion in New Mexico.

“New Mexico voters know one thing for certain– that Mark Ronchetti is a liar. He’s either lying to the pastor or to the people of New Mexico, but either way he can’t be trusted,” Democratic Party of New Mexico Communications Director Daniel Garcia said. “New Mexicans deserve a governor they can trust– especially on issues that matter as much as reproductive freedom and the right to make your own health care decisions.”

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