Republican Steve Pearce won his third consecutive term as chairman for the Republican Party of New Mexico Saturday.While Republicans took a huge hit at this year's midterm elections statewide, KOAT Political Analyst, Brian Sanderoff, believes there's still a fighting chance for the Republican Party moving forward. "Steve Pearce was re-elected by a relatively comfortable margin. The Republican Central Committee has given Steve Pearce a third bite of the apple, so to speak. They recognize that New Mexico is a blue-leaning state, and you can't fault one individual for what happened here," Sanderoff said. "The challenge for the Republican Party is to broaden their message and attract enough Democrats and independents, so they can win statewide."Sanderoff said New Mexico's high crime rate, education and economy are topics of concern for voters. "Republicans must come up with a positive message to address these concerns," he said. "In the rural areas and small towns, Republican candidates are doing great. What's happening to the Republican Party is places like Albuquerque and Las Cruces and even Rio Rancho are starting to slip away. They can't let that happen. They need to do better in the state's largest cities."New Republican House leader, Ryan Lane, believes there's still work to be done while staying true to conservative principles. "The Albuquerque Metro area, I think education is a big deal for folks. Crime and safety are big deals, and those are policy areas when you look across the country that conservatives have made a lot of headway in," he said. "We have to utilize better media platforms. So, I think that's something that Republicans can do a better job to reach all people. The public is tired of hearing the fighting on both the left and the right, and I think we're more interested in being problem solvers. That will be part of our focus as well- certainly staying true to conservative principles, but also figuring out how can we actually address the problems facing New Mexico."The Democratic Party of New Mexico sent KOAT a statement concerning Pearce's re-election:“As New Mexico Republican Party Chair, Steve Pearce has a record of recruiting unqualified candidates to run for office; aligning their party with the bizarre, far-right extremes, and failing to speak to concerns of everyday New Mexicans. He was the mastermind behind the fake elector scheme in New Mexico which sought to undermine democracy and falsely and illegally allocate New Mexico’s electoral votes to Donald Trump in 2020 after he lost our state by 10 percentage points. The New Mexico Republican Party leadership chose to continue Pearce’s failed record as Chairman, but as shown by the election results from the recent midterms, voters reject Pearce and his out-of-touch candidates and we’re confident they’ll do so again throughout his upcoming term.”We reached out to Republican chairman Steve Pearce but have not heard back.