With New Mexico’s general election less than two weeks away, supporters and advocates on both sides of the ailse are ramping up their efforts to get people out to the polls.
In an effort to drum up support for the democratic incumbent Michelle Lujan Grisham, the president of the American Federation of Teachers paid a visit to Albuquerque to hold a “get out the vote” rally for the governor.
Randi Weingarten told the crowd gathered at IBEW 611 Labor Hall that she had been on a nationwide tour holding similar “get out the vote” rallies.
But she left the bus she had been traveling in Indiana in order to reach New Mexico before the election.
“I wanted to be in New Mexico because I didn’t want to just talk about the stakes of the election, which are huge. But I also wanted to talk about the gem that you have as a governor.”
Weingarten touched on the governor’s accomplishments in her first term, from raising salaries of teachers across the state to the opportunity scholarship and expanding access to early childhood care and education.
These are all accomplishments Weingarten said are at risk if Republican candidate Mark Ronchetti wins the election.
“So what does this guy try to do? Nope, on early childhood, get rid of the opportunity scholarships, while at the same time he’s getting rid of scholarships that go to kids, while at the same time saying I want to cut public education and divert the money to vouchers.”
Lujan Grisham said the state of the nation is not conducive for elections, with many people feeling the effects of inflation and the raise in cost of living, they often direct their displeasure at an incumbent politician, or in this case, governor.
“This is a hard climate, we know people are upset and they don’t feel good. That is a very bad climate for elections, what do you do in that regard? You throw out the incumbent no matter what the incumbent is doing because there’s no place to focus that anger.”
In order to avoid a possible loss, Lujan Grisham implored the audience to ramp up efforts to urge people to go out and vote.
Citing the need to remind some of the public about how far New Mexico has come in the first four years of Lujan Grisham’s administration.