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Majority Savers: Let's Support Teresa Leger Fernandez for New Mexico-3! [1]
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Date: 2022-09-14
Candidate Background
I used both Wikipedia and her campaign website to synthesize her background. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez has deep political roots, as her father was a state senator in New Mexico too.
She is a lawyer, having graduated from Yale for undergrad and Stanford Law School for her Juris Doctor. She returned to New Mexico and practiced both community building and tribal advocacy.
Fernandez is both a Clinton alumnus and an Obama alumnus. She was a White House Fellow for Clinton and on a Advisory Council for Historic Preservation for Obama. She also was a liaison between the White House and HUD during Obama’s presidency.
Before running for Congress, she worked in Santa Fe to get ranked choice voting implemented. It was a part of her law firm and her commitment to civil rights and social justice.
Signature Issues
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez is about at the center of the Democratic caucus, which makes her a progressive. She advocates for many issues, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. She votes for Joe Biden’s agenda nearly 100% of the time.
On DW Nominate, her score is -0.389. That puts her at about the center of the Democratic caucus. She is more liberal than 76% of the entire membership of the House. She is also more liberal than 53% of her fellow Democratic members in the House. She is right in the center of the caucus on her second dimension as well.
Health Care and Abortion: Besides Medicare for All, she is very concerned about health care deserts and the lack of opportunity for rural areas in health care. These inequities were laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic. She also is 100% pro-choice and will fight to codify Roe into law.
Immigration Reform: Leger Fernandez would provide a path to citizenship for all immigrants, and she has supported the DREAMers in the past. While she agrees that the border needs security, she is against the TFG border wall and would prefer selective targeting of crossings that smuggle drugs.
Tribal Sovereignty: Not the sexiest issue on Daily Kos, this issue is important in her district. She fully supports reinstating McGirt, which gave the tribes sovereignty over their jurisdictions. Her district has many different reservations, and their self-determination is important to her.
Elections History
Recent Elections —
2020 President: Joe Biden (D) 54.3%, TFG (R-inc) 43.6%
2020 House: Teresa Leger Fernandez (D) 58.1%, Alexis Martinez Johnson (R) 41.0%
2022 Race Rating: Likely Democratic
2022 PVI: D+4
This district was created in 1990 redistricting, and it has been Democratic for the vast majority of the time. Every Democratic candidate has carried the district, all the way from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden. Even Al Gore won the district while narrowly losing the state to GW Bush! This district has deep Democratic roots, and hopefully those roots will propel Leger Fernandez to a win.
The GQP held this district from 1997-1999 in a special election upset in a split field. That’s what it took for them to hold this district, and the seat immediately returned to its Democratic roots when Rep. Tom Udall won back the district in the 1998 midterm elections. Udall eventually ran for the Senate seat in 2008, which brought Rep. Ben Ray Lujan to the district.
Lujan eventually ran for the same Senate seat himself in 2020, and there was a fierce primary to replace him. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez won the contentious primary, and settled into this district nicely. The problem comes with new very conservative turf added after 2020 redistricting. New Mexico Democrats are trying for all three districts, but they weakened this one, hence it having a potential to flip.
Santa Fe is a Democratic anchor in the district, and it has beautiful adobe architecture.
Political Tour of the District
The 3rd district of New Mexico. It takes in parts of eastern New Mexico for the first time.
This district still has a Democratic lean to it, but it isn’t as strong as before. In a red wave environment, this district could easily flip. Thankfully it seems that Dobbs precludes such a chance of it happening. Eastern New Mexico is reliably red, and its inclusion is what prompted this diary.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 3rd district.
Santa Fe: One of the Democratic anchors of the district, Santa Fe is very reliably blue these days, and Rep. Leger Fernandez needs to make sure these voters have maximum turnout to swamp the bad parts of the district.
One of the Democratic anchors of the district, Santa Fe is very reliably blue these days, and Rep. Leger Fernandez needs to make sure these voters have maximum turnout to swamp the bad parts of the district. Native American Reservations: The district contains quite a few Native American reservations, and turning out this vote is critical for Leger Fernandez to have success. Hopefully she has good ties to the reservations such that there aren’t any issues.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
Clovis and Roswell: This area of the district is rather red, and Leger Fernandez needs to not be blown out in these portions of the district. She better hope for lesser turnout as well, as these portions of the district can easily overwhelm weak turnout elsewhere.
This area of the district is rather red, and Leger Fernandez needs to not be blown out in these portions of the district. She better hope for lesser turnout as well, as these portions of the district can easily overwhelm weak turnout elsewhere. Northwest Corner: The area of Farmington/Aztec/Bloomfield is a fracking area of the state, which means that the voters there are quite conservative leaning. While not enough to swamp the rest of the district, this area could punch above its weight if there are turnout issues.
Activism — Help How You Can!
I don’t know how the opposition is doing in the money race, because the resources I use have omitted the GQP entry for this district. That means either the opposition isn’t raising much or it was an accidental oversight. What I do know is that Rep. Leger Fernandez raised $579k in the 2nd Quarter of 2022, which should be enough in a cheap district.
In terms of cash on hand, Leger Fernandez has a cool $1.22 MILLION to spend. Again, I have no idea how much the opposition has, because there is no entry for the GQP candidate. I doubt dark money will be at play here, and it is a tough ask to give a donation. I’m still thinking donations will be helpful here, so feel free to donate to Teresa Leger Fernandez below…
DONATE TO REP. TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ HERE
In terms of volunteer opportunities, she likely needs them just like any other campaign. Canvassing and phone/text banking are the biggest needs as we get closer to the election, but there are more ways to help than I can list. Volunteer at
https://www.teresaforall.com/volunteer to sign up.
In terms of social media presence, she has a respectable amount of followers for her campaign account. 19.5k followers is a good start, and hopefully you will follow her to stay up to date on her campaign! Here’s her playing baseball!
x who played at this weekend’s Northern Pueblo Baseball Tournament!
The Northern Pueblo League is carrying on a many generations tradition of baseball excellence across New Mexico’s tribal communities. pic.twitter.com/qYhIQjtQ4C — Teresa Leger Fernandez (@TeresaForNM) September 5, 2022
She also has a Facebook page at TeresaForNM and an Instagram page at teresafornm. Go ahead and check them out today!
To be honest, I am not too worried about this race, hence why it was included in my “Probably Safe Week”. However, I thought that profiling this race just in case was prudent. Stranger things have happened in politics before, and there is still time for the midterms to go sour on us. Hopefully these Majority Savers articles are making a difference!
How to find all Majority Savers’ diaries:
To find all past and future diaries of the Majority Savers group, go to their Diaries List. (We suggest that you Bookmark that page.) The home page of the Majority Savers group is here.
Teresa Leger Fernandez for New Mexico-3
Donate | Volunteer | Campaign | FaceBook | Twitter | Instagram
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