“It’s a hard sell here,” said David Trujillo, the Democratic mayor of Lovington, N.M., the county seat of rural Lea County, where the former president won by 60 percentage points.

Trujillo was among the first locals to be vaccinated in midwinter, when he secured a spot because vials were going to waste for lack of sign-ups. The rate for the county is now 20% — about a third of the rate statewide.

Well aware that promoting vaccination could hurt his campaign for reelection in April, the mayor said he rarely mentions it anymore.

“You could lose votes for pushing the vaccine too much,” he said.