June 16 – The pressure is on New Mexico’s freshman congressman ahead of November’s general election, as the Republican Party looks to expand its majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and retake a seat that has been tossed and turned in recent years alternated between Democrats and Republicans.
Considered one of the most competitive House races in the country, the battle for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District seat is a battle for first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez against the previous office holder – Republican Yvette Herrel – in a rematch that will likely see big spending and vicious attacks.
“I don’t take this race for granted,” Vasquez said in an interview Friday.
That includes the Republican Party, which continues to go after Vasquez and exploits a series of unflattering reports claiming, among other things, that a warrant has been issued for Vasquez’s arrest for outstanding traffic tickets from more than two decades ago, that he tried to dispose of marijuana to flush a toilet after police were sent to his apartment in 2005 to investigate a noise complaint and also that he had made racist comments to a former colleague the year before.
“I have not used this type of language and never would,” Vasquez said, referring to a report unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, in which he alleged he called a black colleague a derogatory term.
“This attack is categorically false,” he said, adding that he is not concerned about data “from more than 20 years ago” that the Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee are using to “misinform voters.”
“What I’m concerned about is that Yvette Herrell, as a congresswoman, is on record as wanting to ban all abortion and now she’s trying to hide that,” he said.
Herrell was not available for an interview, but her campaign shared a recent op-ed in which she too accused herself of being the victim of misinformation.
“We are getting close to election season, which for me means once again preparing to see and hear millions of dollars in ads from liberal special interest groups smearing me and misleading New Mexico voters about my positions,” she wrote.
In a statement, Herrell accused Vasquez of having a “dangerous and racist past” that eventually caught up with him.
“His anti-law enforcement and open border positions clearly make him unfit to serve New Mexicans,” she said.
Herrell’s op-ed is specifically about her position on abortion and comes after the Huffington Post reported on a “newly discovered video” in which Herrell said in 2020 that she wished “we could have eliminated all abortion” in New Mexico. The report also noted that Herrell removed all references to abortion from her website and campaign materials.
Although she is “pro-life” and believes that “every human life is a sacred gift from God,” Herrell wrote in the op-ed, she supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, as well as “increased access to contraception, education that can reduce unintended pregnancies, and fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization.”
“When the Supreme Court ruled Roe vs. Wade in 2022, it returned responsibility for setting abortion policy to the states,” she wrote. “The people of each state must now decide for themselves what limits should be placed on abortion.”
In the 2nd Congressional District, voters will also have to decide whether to replace Vasquez with Herrell, who held the seat before him.
According to the most recent voter registration data, the majority-Hispanic district is made up of 42% Democrats, 31% Republicans, 1% Libertarians and 26% “others.”
In the 2022 gubernatorial race, Republican Mark Ronchetti narrowly won the district with 94,914 votes, compared to 94,290 votes for Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, who won the statewide race.
Albuquerque political analyst and longtime pollster Brian Sanderoff noted that Vasquez won by less than a percentage point when he ran against Herrell two years ago. He expects another exciting race in November.
“The nature of the neighborhood and the existing boundaries after redistricting made it a swing neighborhood,” he said. “Under the previous boundaries, it was a strongly lean Republican district, and it is now a strongly swing district where either party can win.”
Herrell blamed redistricting for her 2022 loss, saying at the time that Democrats in Santa Fe had concentrated power “in urban areas at the expense of votes in rural New Mexico,” according to published reports. Herrell also expressed confidence that she could win back the seat in 2024.
Herrell benefited from high turnout in the last presidential election of 2020, when she defeated former U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small by nearly 8 percentage points over previous district lines. She had lost to Torres Small by less than 2 percentage points in 2018, a non-presidential election year.
“Times and mood affect election results, so we’re not really sure yet what November will look like in terms of the overall political mood,” Sanderoff said.
Sanderoff said “a big question mark” is whether President Joe Biden can boost turnout among younger voters as former President Barack Obama was able to do, and whether Trump will be able to motivate Republicans to vote in November.
Trump “did it when Herrell won it in 2020… but the nature of the district is different,” he said. “Last time she had the whole oil field – all of Eddy, Lea, Chaves and Lincoln [counties] were in the district – so she benefited greatly. Now those provinces are divided among the three [congressional] districts, so it is less predictable whether she will benefit from it.”
Under the old limits, Republicans could be “more homogeneously conservative” in their reporting.
“But the neighborhood is much more diverse now,” he said, adding that he recalled a 2022 TV ad in which Herrell got a latte at what appeared to be a coffee shop in Albuquerque’s South Valley, some of which now is located in the 2nd Congressional District. .
“The nature of campaigns has changed under the new district boundaries,” he said.
What hasn’t changed, however, is the cutthroat world of politics.
Recent reports that Vasquez had a warrant for his arrest and used racial slurs are likely to generate attack ads and put the freshman congressman on the defensive, Sanderoff said.
“We haven’t heard the end of this yet,” he said. “At the very least, it puts him on the defensive, spending some of his limited resources on defending himself or defending himself against these charges, so it will certainly have an impact on the campaign. Any controversy does pain.” [a candidate] in an exciting race.”
Delanie Bomar, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, indicated the allegations will continue to haunt Vasquez during the election season.
“We’re going to make sure every voter in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District knows about Vasquez’s decades-long troubles with the law, his calling a colleague the n-word, his open borders policies and his calls for defunding the police.” , she said. referencing a 2020 TV interview in which Vasquez, then a Las Cruces city council member, said, “It’s not just about defunding the police, it’s about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else.”
Herrell’s campaign said New Mexicans can expect information about Vasquez’s alleged “anti-law enforcement record” “anywhere and everywhere.”
“Simply put, Gabe can no longer escape his deeply troubled past,” the campaign said.
Jessica Velasquez, chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, said the fight for Congress is a priority “above and beyond” the state party.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced it is investing another $70,000 in organizing staff to help get Vasquez and other Democrats up for reelection.
“The DNC and the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] investing in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District and one thing everyone is very sure of is the path to turning the U.S. House of Representatives blue right through New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez said Vasquez has proven to be an effective representative during his first term.
“He shows up and does his work in every community and especially in communities that may not have supported him in the last election, like Catron County,” she said. “He delivers real results for the people of his district, which is why I believe we have so much enthusiasm and momentum for this race.”
Like Vasquez, Velasquez said reproductive rights will come up in November.
“Yvette Herrell is desperately trying to escape her criminal record because she knows that extreme positions on abortion do not align with the will of the majority of Americans,” she said. “The Huffington Post reported that she has debunked her previous positions on abortion and tried to cover it up by cleaning up her website. That is an attempt to fool voters. She is trying to backtrack on her extreme, anti-choice views. turn.”
Velasquez said former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Herrell will only hurt her in New Mexico.
“Republicans have been turning inward lately to win Donald Trump’s support,” she said. “That effort will backfire here in New Mexico because we’ve seen time and time again that those MAGA Republicans are extreme [positions] do not reflect what is in the hearts and minds of people here in this state. With the endorsement of a convicted felon, I’m not sure this will actually do Yvette Herrell the favor she’s hoping for.”
Herrell’s campaign said Herrell is proud to have Trump’s support and noted that she flipped the seat the last time Trump was on the ballot.
Steve Pearce, chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, predicts the race between Vasquez and Herrell will be “very close” and “very competitive.”
“The most important thing is that the landscape has changed between 2020 and 2022,” he said. “People are really feeling the impact of inflation. They’re worried about crime and the open border thing, so I think it’s going to be a very different race than 2022.”
Pearce, who represented the congressional district from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019, said the “general situation in the country” makes Vasquez vulnerable.
Voters will have to decide whether the recent string of unflattering reports will play a role in their decision, Pearce said.
“If you look closely, you’ll notice that no major news network has covered nearly all of these stories, and it’s hard to convince people of something like this with 30-second TV ads,” he said. “If they were Republicans, it would be front page news for weeks and weeks and weeks, from racist comments to whatever. … You look at all that and say, ‘Okay, I just don’t think this guy was the right choice to represent the average New Mexican in Congress, and I think that’s one of the questions that’s going to be addressed.”
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.
