At a time when Republican lawmakers are facing a lot of heat in their homestate town halls, it seemed less likely that Senator Ben Ray Lujan would be in a similar spot in blue Santa Fe.
And for the most part that was true during last night’s Lujan town hall at Santa Fe Community College.
Organizers of the event estimated that about 200 people were in attendance.
People often applauded the senator’s comments, echoing each other’s objections to Trump Administration policies.
But local residents also expressed anger at times, imploring Lujan and his colleagues to do more.
A raffle system was used to decide the order of questions from attendees who requested an opportunity to pose one.
When Santa Fe County resident Gary Lasswell asked Lujan the first question of the night, he called for more urgency in response to what he called the “lawless” Trump administration.
" I guess I want to hear from what you believe are the steps that we need to take moving forward now to move this resistance forward," Lasswell said..
"We do not have 18 months to wait for the midterms. We will not be a country, we will not have midterm elections. I believe that. I believe that he's going to do everything possible so that we don't have midterm elections."
Lujan responded by saying he agreed with the high-alert level nature of the question, and mentioned during the night a number of his greatest concerns.
Those included attempts to crack down on the media and journalists; cuts and threatened cuts to areas such as Medicaid and medicare, education, infrastructure, agriculture, and scientific research.
But while there was consensus in the room with regard to the problems and challenges, there was less agreement about solutions.
Some argued that more lawmakers should hold citizen rallies, as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have done across the country.
But Lujan feels his best chance of having an impact is not to hit the road like Sanders and AOC, but to keep working legislative channels, and try to get GOP colleagues to vote across the aisle.
"You can't stop the Republicans because of the sheer spread that they have right now," Lujan said.
"We can get three Republicans. JD Vance breaks the tie. We need four on any one of these votes. We've had three Republicans have the courage to push back against this administration, but we've not seen a fourth."
A Santa Fe County resident called for a special election to replace Donald Trump while others called for impeachment.
Lujan said that until Democrats regain the majority, such strategies won’t work.
One part-time Santa Fe resident, Debra Weiner, described Lujan as a “nice guy,” but wonders if he’s too sensitive to the politics to spark change.
"What makes somebody stand up and risk not being elected again and really trying to make a difference. That's what we need is those kind of people, who are not being the politician."
Santa Fe resident Ron Flax-Davidson, as he was leaving the community college, said that the moment calls for a 1960s-style protest climate.
"There's a lot of concern that we're not doing enough to stop the president and his administration. And I'm concerned that the senator needs to do more to, to stop it," said Flax-Davidson.
"And we all need to do more. And I certainly do my part as much as I can, but I'd like to see other people as well stand up. I remember the days when I was out in the streets protesting the Vietnam War, and that's what I think we need to do today.”
