In New Mexico, Public Lands Turned an Election Blue

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Could saving our nation’s natural heritage be the issue that unites a divided country? It looks that way, at least in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, where a pro-public-lands Democrat achieved a narrow upset over a pro-Trump, anti-monument Republican.

Xochitl Torres Small, a 33-year-old attorney and first-time Congressional candidate, just won her bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a massive region that’s 99.6 percent rural and about 60 times the size of Rhode Island. She’ll be the first woman ever and only the third Democrat in the last half century to represent the district. (Her win also makes New Mexico the only state in the West with an entirely Democratic U.S. House and Senate.)

Link to tweet

To be fair, Torres Small mostly campaigned on key issues such as immigration, health care, and education. But she's also been consistently vocal about protecting the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, a 776-square-mile preserve made up of wild, rugged mountains that's located in her district. Designated by President Barack Obama in 2014, the monument is popular with locals, but was nevertheless the target of efforts by President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to shrink several national monuments last year.

“The community invested over a decade to carefully study, document, and negotiate protection of these Wild West lands,” Torres Small wrote in an open letter to Zinke in June. “The result is a stunning national monument that receives overwhelming local support and attracts national and international acclaim, and the accompanying tourism dollars that come with that. Please, don't interfere with our hard-earned source of local pride. Let us keep our Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.”

https://www.outsideonline.com/2365521/new-mexico-public-lands-turn-election-blue?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WYM-Saturday-04262017%20copy&utm_content=WYM-Saturday-04262017%20copy+CID_77f62f04d5d025cff5c51d1f8b1b6ab4&utm_source=campaignmonitor%20outsidemagazine&utm_term=pro-public-lands%20Democrat%20achieved%20a%20narrow%20upset

[Quixote1818]

1. The local news programs were saying she got hammered in the rural areas

by about 80% to 20% so she had to make it up in the Las Cruces area which she won by 20 points. Just enough to put her over the top in a very red district.

[comradebillyboy]

2. Xochitlran a first class campaign. She should have a bright

future in politics.