I sat down with farmers across southern New Mexico and I listened. One of them told me something I have not stopped thinking about. Farmers are hopeful people. They do not dwell on what happened last year. They get up and they bet on this one.

 

That kind of hope deserves a fighter in Congress. For too long New Mexico's growers have gotten higher costs, broken water promises, and representation that says the right things back home while its record in Washington works against this district. I am running to change that. Here is what I will fight for.

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1  Water Is Survival

• Hold Mexico to its treaty water obligations and put real pressure through the State Department.

• Defend New Mexico's full share under the Rio Grande Compact and stand with the state to protect what is ours.

• Invest in real infrastructure: storage, channel maintenance, and modernizing the Rio Grande Project so every acre-foot counts.

• Bring the federal government to the table with the state on cloud seeding and weather modification instead of leaving New Mexico to go it alone.

• Back brackish water desalination, including the research happening right here in Alamogordo, so we create new water instead of just fighting over what is left.

• Put farms first. I will reject any scheme that drains agricultural water to feed data centers.

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2  Affordability and the Cost of Doing Business

• Defend New Mexico oil and gas and the thousands of jobs it supports, because that energy keeps farm costs down.

• Bring down the cost of fuel, fertilizer, and inputs by defending the New Mexico energy that makes them, not policies that drive them up.

• Oppose new taxes and mandates that get passed straight through to the price of food at the grocery store.

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3  Open More Markets for New Mexico Growers

• Open new export markets with our allies so New Mexico growers can sell more of what they raise.

• Make trade policy work for New Mexico farmers, and make sure our growers are not undercut by foreign products on an uneven playing field.

• Cut the regulations that make it harder for farmers to process, market, and sell New Mexico products through local and regional channels.

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4  Cut the Red Tape

• Cut the permitting and environmental red tape that delays or kills routine farm and ranch work.

• Restore science and common sense to federal regulation instead of letting activists write the rules.

• Protect the property rights of New Mexico farmers and ranchers from federal overreach.

• Stop bureaucrats from using transmission corridors as a backdoor to seize ranch and farm land through eminent domain.

• Get Mexican wolf and gray wolf management out of the hands of activists and back to the people who live with the consequences, and make sure ranchers are made whole when a federal program puts a predator on their land.

• Push the Forest Service to assign vacant grazing allotments so we cut wildfire fuel, keep ranching families on the land, and let local economies work.

• Keep the federal grasshopper and Mormon cricket control program funded and working, because one bad season can wipe out a grazing operation.

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5  A Legal Workforce and a Secure Border

• Keep the border secure and build on the progress we have made.

• Fix and modernize the legal agricultural guest worker programs so farms have a reliable, legal workforce.

• Cut the red tape and costs that make hiring legal farm labor a nightmare for New Mexico growers.

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6  Protect the Herd, Hold the Border

• Defend New Mexico herds from screwworm, foot and mouth, and avian flu, and demand a federal response that moves at the speed of the threat instead of the speed of a bureaucracy.

• Keep our ports protected and hold Mexico to the joint plan, because one infected animal crossing the line puts every operation in this district at risk.

• Back the sterile fly program and the inspection protocols that stand between our cattle and disaster.

• End the rural veterinarian shortage by expanding federal loan repayment so large-animal vets come back to the counties that need them most.

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7  A Fair Share for New Mexico

• Fight for New Mexico's fair share by lifting up support for the specialty crops and livestock we actually grow: dairy, cattle, pecans, and chile.

• Reform the federal sugar program that quietly raises grocery prices for New Mexico families.

• Debate farm policy and food assistance honestly, each on its own merits, instead of burying one inside the other to force a deal.

• Bring common-sense accountability and less waste to food assistance so it reaches the families who truly depend on it.

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8  Keep the Next Generation on the Land

• Expand credit and support for young, beginning, and veteran farmers and ranchers getting started.

• Knock down the costs and barriers that make it impossible for the next generation to break in.

• Protect generational family farms from a tax code and a regulatory system that punish them for staying in business.

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