Priorities

I’m asking to represent House District 31 to make it affordable to live here, make it worth staying here, and hold powerful interests accountable when they put their profits ahead of New Mexico families.

Here’s what I’d work on:

ADDRESS THE SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS AND HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

Access to quality healthcare is a right. We should be moving toward universal healthcare while taking action now to address New Mexico’s healthcare crisis—protecting patients and making our state a better place for doctors, nurses and other providers to practice.

  • Pay medical-school tuition for students who commit to practicing in New Mexico.

  • Expand loan repayment and pay residents competitively so they stay.

  • Expand graduate medical education and residency positions.

  • Speed up licensing so qualified providers can get to work.

  • Improve Medicaid reimbursement so independent practices can stay open.

  • Cut prior-authorization red tape and protect independent practices from corporate takeovers.

  • Strengthen oversight of insurers so patients and providers—not insurance companies—make medical decisions.

  • Begin building a universal nonprofit healthcare option that businesses and individuals can buy into alongside Medicare and Medicaid, modeled on the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).

Congress must also expand medical-school and residency slots to address the national shortage long term. But New Mexicans can’t wait—we need state action now.

HOLD CORPORATIONS AND DATA CENTERS ACCOUNTABLE

New Mexico should welcome economic development that benefits New Mexicans—not deals that leave taxpayers and ratepayers paying the bill while corporations take the profits.

  • Pause new data-center development while New Mexico puts strong protections in place.

  • Require large private power projects to protect the reliability of our electric grid.

  • Require data centers to pay the full cost of the water and electricity they use.

  • Ban deals that force taxpayers or ratepayers to subsidize data-center costs.

  • Require regular water permits and meaningful oversight of major water use.

LOWER EVERYDAY COSTS FOR FAMILIES

Families are feeling the squeeze everywhere—groceries, utilities, healthcare, childcare and housing.

  • Crack down on price gouging and anti-competitive practices.

  • Expand affordable healthcare coverage.

  • Expand the Child Tax Credit and tax relief for working families.

  • Protect consumers and ratepayers from being stuck with the costs of corporate development.

IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

New Mexico has made historic investments in free childcare, school meals and college. Now those investments need to produce better outcomes for our kids.

  • Recruit, retain and support great teachers.

  • Address student mental health and trauma.

  • Expand community schools and school-based health centers.

  • Catch chronic absenteeism early.

  • Build strong pathways to college, the trades and good-paying careers.

ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS

Homelessness cannot be solved by simply moving people from one neighborhood to another. We need to address the underlying problems while protecting the quality of life in our communities.

  • Expand addiction treatment and recovery.

  • Increase behavioral-health services.

  • Expand supportive housing.

  • Work with local governments on solutions that improve both public safety and housing stability.

MAKE OUR COMMUNITIES SAFER

We need consequences for people who repeatedly commit serious crimes, while also addressing the problems that contribute to crime in the first place.

  • Recruit and retain law enforcement officers.

  • Expand behavioral-health crisis response.

  • Strengthen pretrial detention and monitoring for genuinely dangerous repeat offenders while protecting constitutional rights.

  • Reduce gun violence through commonsense gun-safety laws and community violence prevention.

PROTECT NEW MEXICO’S WATER

With New Mexico projecting substantially less water in our rivers and aquifers over the coming decades, and  as large water users like AI data centers want to come to New Mexico, protecting our water supply has to be a priority.

  • Invest in water conservation and modern infrastructure.

  • Require large water users to pay the full cost of the resources they use.

  • Protect watersheds and reduce wildfire risk through forest restoration.

  • Pursue federal drought relief and infrastructure funding for communities, farmers and ranchers.