Clay Pryor
Clay Pryor (Republican Party) ran for election for Bernalillo County Clerk in New Mexico. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Pryor completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Clay Pryor was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico in 1981 and a graduate degree from the Anderson School of Management in 1985. His career experience includes working in software development. Pryor has been affiliated with Sandia National Labs.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Bernalillo County, New Mexico (2024)
General election
General election for Bernalillo County Clerk
Michelle Kavanaugh defeated Clay Pryor in the general election for Bernalillo County Clerk on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Michelle Kavanaugh (D)  | 60.2 | 176,191 | |
| Clay Pryor (R) | 39.8 | 116,539 | ||
| Total votes: 292,730 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Bernalillo County Clerk
Michelle Kavanaugh defeated Karen Montoya in the Democratic primary for Bernalillo County Clerk on June 4, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Michelle Kavanaugh | 60.1 | 27,260 | |
 | Karen Montoya | 39.9 | 18,126 | |
| Total votes: 45,386 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Bernalillo County Clerk
Clay Pryor defeated Robert Kwasny in the Republican primary for Bernalillo County Clerk on June 4, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Clay Pryor | 67.2 | 14,259 | |
| Robert Kwasny | 32.8 | 6,944 | ||
| Total votes: 21,203 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Pryor in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Clay Pryor completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Pryor's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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While in Des Moines Iowa, we learned how unique New Mexico really is. One after another person we met in Iowa would tell us about their vacations to New Mexico and how wonderful our state is. We realized that as native New Mexicans we knew less about New Mexico than those who vacationed here. As a result, when we returned to New Mexico, we spent our weekends and most of our vacations exploring this wonderful state!
I have worked for the Air Force Weapons Labs, the State of New Mexico, and Sandia National Labs. I programmed computers all those years starting at the lowest level with the Air Force Weapons Labs and progressing to Principal Member of Technical Staff (PMTS) at Sandia where I wrote programs and led small teams developing enterprise web database applications. I spent the last six years of my career developing Enterprise Search applications which capitalized on machine learning (a.k.a. Artificial Intelligence) to personalize search results. Rather than using Artificial Intelligence to hide results from people, as some major public search engines do, I used it to help employees find information that is most relevant to them.- As Bernalillo County Clerk I will work to ensure the utmost level of accuracy and public confidence in our election systems.
As a software developer for several decades, I know that I can write code to implement just about any algorithm you can think of. I also know that I can make mistakes which can lead to erroneous results. So, I have always had doubts about our voting systems.
I have had the opportunity to investigate how the tabulators are used in Bernalillo County, and although we may not be able to know directly how our vote was cast but there are measures in place to detect faulty tabulators during the counting process so we can have confidence that our votes are counted as intended. We just to ensure state laws are followed. - Experience leading technical teams During the course of my career at Sandia National Labs, I was promoted from Member of Laboratory Staff (MLS), to Member of Technical Staff (MTS), and Senior Member of Technical Staff (SMTS) for my technical skills. After demonstrating continuous and consistent leadership skills, I was promoted to Prinicipal Member of Technical Staff (PMTS). As a PMTS at Sandia, I led several technical teams in enterprise application development, tester software development, and a major project to replace a custom built enterprise search application with a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) package that saved significant amounts of money and freed up Sandia staff to work on more important projects.
- Business process optimization. I realize the County Clerk's office is more than just elections. I believe my MBA and decades of experience in understanding, adjusting, and automating business systems, in addition to leading technical teams, gives me the ability to appreciate and lead staff in all aspects of County Clerk services. While I believe the County Clerk’s office is doing great work, it is always a good idea to review and improve administrative processes. This applies to our election systems as well as all other functions of the clerk’s office. Given the requirements of the job and my relevant background and experience, I believe I am the best candidate for the County Clerk position. Please consider voting for me.
If we cannot ensure voters that our elections are fair, honest, and without manipulation then many will choose not to participate.
We can, and we should, reach out to registered voters who have not voted in recent elections to understand why they have not voted and take measures to resolve any issues identified. If change is needed, after analysis, we can follow established processes within the law to make those changes.
Politicians need to remember that they server the public. The public does not server them.
Leadership and administrative skills are required but a good understanding of business processes and information systems are essential. No matter how good a process is there is always an opportunity for improvement. Processes must be continuously monitored, evaluated and improved upon.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 11, 2024
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