In southwest New Mexico, the seat for House District 39 is heating up between incumbent Republican Luis Terrazas from Grant County and Democratic challenger Gabby Begay who is Navajo from Silver City.
Begay is a first grade teacher at Jose Barrios Elementary School and serves as the President of the Cobre Consolidated Board of Education. She told KRWG that children influenced her decision to run.
“I'm exposed to kids every day, and I see the struggles that they go through and that their families go through,” she said.
Begay said she’s heard from her community that they want high-quality public schools.
“My opponent is wanting to fund private schools and vouchers, and that would decimate our public school system,” she said.
But Terrazas disputed this claim on Facebook.
“I did sponsor a bill that helped kids outside of public schools, but it never took money away from them,” he said.
Terrazas sponsored numerous bills in the last regular legislative session. Only three passed dealing with public safety employees returning to work, meat inspections, and Smokey Bear license plates.
Terrazas owns a funeral company. He outlined his main priorities in his newsletter the New Mexico Insider. Those include curtailing crime by enforcing pre-existing laws and offering law enforcement resources they need, not raising taxes, and providing health care in rural areas.
Begay said her main concerns are better paying jobs in clean energy, film and tourism, increasing health care access by providing reproductive rights, and lowering prescription drug costs.
As an incumbent, Terrazas has raised $192,069.65 for his campaign. His top contributions come from Sharon Mosier, fellow Republican State Representative Gail Armstrong and an oil and gas company.
Begay trails closely behind in funding with $174,202.44 with Democratic representatives Siah Correa Hemphill, Linda Serrato and Nathan Small being her top funders along with the House Democrats’ Speaker Fund and NM Women Rising.
Neither candidate granted an interview to KUNM. The election is November 5th and early voting is underway.
Support from the coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
