I served as a United States Marine during the Gulf War. After returning home, I spent over two decades in law enforcement protecting our communities. I then built a small business from the ground up. Each of those experiences required me to solve real problems, be accountable to others, and put service before self. NM-02 needs a representative who knows this district. I know the people here, I know the challenges, and I have spent my entire life earning the trust it takes to lead.
Southern New Mexico has been let down by politicians who talk about fixing things every two years and then do nothing. I have lived and worked in this district. I know what those failures cost real people. On the border, I will fight to restore order, fully resource our agents, and end the chaos communities here have absorbed while Gabe Vasquez looked the other way. On the economy, I will cut regulations strangling small businesses like the one I built and oppose every tax increase that hammers working families. On energy and affordability, Washington has been waging a war on the oil and gas industry that powers this district and every New Mexican is paying for it at the pump and in their utility bills. I will protect Permian Basin jobs and
Social Security is a promise this country made to its workers and I will not let Washington break it. The people of NM-02 have worked hard their entire lives and they have earned every dollar of those benefits. My commitment is simple: I will not vote to cut benefits for anyone who is currently receiving them or who is close to retirement. I will oppose any effort to raid the Trust Fund to pay for other government spending. Sustaining Social Security long-term requires a growing economy, not bigger government. The best thing Congress can do for the future of this program is get out of the way of the workers and businesses that fund it.
NM-02 shares a long stretch of the southern border. I have watched this district bear the consequences of a broken immigration system for years. We need laws that are enforced consistently, a physical and technological border presence that actually deters illegal crossings, and a legal immigration system that is faster, fairer, and workable. I support pathways for workers critical to our economy and reforms that cut the bureaucratic backlog. But security must come first. A border that is not controlled is not a border, and the communities in this district deserve better than the chaos of the last several years.
Water is not an abstract policy issue in southern New Mexico. It is survival. I will fight to ensure federal water policy does not override state and local rights, and secure funding for aging water infrastructure in our communities. Local governments and states are often better positioned than Washington to manage environmental challenges specific to their regions. Top-down federal mandates that ignore the realities of rural western communities do more harm than good. Practical, locally informed solutions are what I will fight for.
As a small business owner, I saw firsthand what healthcare costs do to employers trying to offer coverage and employees trying to afford it. The answer is not a government takeover of the system. The answer is more competition, more transparency, and fewer middlemen driving up costs. I will prioritize funding for rural clinics and incentives to bring providers to underserved areas.
My qualifications are what I have been able to deliver for our district thus far. As your Congressman: I got my bipartisan bill to reduce New Mexico wildfire risk signed into law by this administration. I led the bipartisan fight that stopped the sale of millions of acres of public lands. I delivered more than 3 million dollars to public safety agencies across this district, secured more than 280 million dollars for border security, and fought against the Medicaid cuts that have now put our rural hospitals at risk. That work ethic came from my mother, who raised me in the borderlands in Southern New Mexico and taught me nothing is handed to you, and that is why I have stood up to leaders in both parties to put New Mexico first, always.
We need to lower costs. That means bringing down the cost families pay for healthcare, prescriptions, child care, and utilities, restoring the healthcare cuts that put more than 35,000 New Mexicans and eight rural hospitals at risk, and actually cutting taxes for working families instead of the wealthiest corporations. Second is public safety: I will keep funding local police, fire, and sheriff departments that keep our communities safe, keep going after the cartels moving fentanyl into our communities, and get illegal guns off our streets. And lastly is accountability to fight corruption in Congress. I do not trade stocks, and I am leading a bipartisan effort to ban members of Congress from trading them.
Social Security is money New Mexicans earned in every paycheck, and Congress should treat that promise as binding. I will oppose cutting benefits, raising the retirement age, or handing any part of the program over to Wall Street. I also cosponsored and voted for the Social Security Fairness Act, now law, so retired teachers, firefighters, and postal workers finally receive the full benefits they earned. And after the Administration made staffing cuts, I fought to ensure that seniors needing support with their Social Security weren’t waiting months for service.
I was raised in the borderlands– I know we can have a secure border and a humane system at the same time. I have secured more than 280 million dollars for border security and written bipartisan bills to go after cartels, human smugglers, and fentanyl traffickers, several of them endorsed by the Las Cruces and Sunland Park police departments. I also believe ICE must be reformed and held accountable so it focuses on violent criminals, not on grandmothers and gardeners who are working hard and following the rules. We need permanent protection for DREAMERs, a workable path to legal status for families already contributing here, and legal ports of entry that actually function.
Water is life in New Mexico, and this is always a top priority for me in Congress. When arsenic levels rose in Doña Ana County drinking water, I pressed the state to expand testing and hold the utility accountable to residents. I have worked to clean up PFAS contamination in groundwater near Holloman and Cannon Air Force Bases, and helped deliver nearly 19 million dollars to treat emerging contaminants in New Mexico drinking water systems. I also secured funding for desalination research in Alamogordo to make brackish water usable. On air, I will keep pushing to cut methane waste and reduce wildfire smoke through the bipartisan wildfire bill I wrote that is now law.
No one should go broke getting sick. I voted against the Republican tax law that stripped Medicaid from 38,000 people in this district, and I cosponsored the bill to reverse those cuts and permanently extend the tax credits that keep premiums affordable. I introduced the amendment to cap insulin at 35 dollars a month, and Republicans blocked it. I am cosponsoring a bill to cap
prescription costs at 2,000 dollars a year for individuals and 4,000 for families, and I will protect Medicare's power to negotiate lower drug prices. I wrote the Patient Debt Relief Act to stop wage
garnishment and foreclosures over medical bills. And I believe every family deserves the choice of a public option.
