New Mexico
New Mexico groups have mixed reactions to Harris as presumptive nominee – NM Political Report
Some New Mexico-based reproductive justice and LGBTQ groups express mixed reactions to Vice President Kamala Harris as Democrat’s presumptive nominee for president. Marshall Martinez, executive director of Equality New Mexico, said he was “very excited” about a woman of color campaign for president. But Indigenous Women Rising founder and Executive Director Rachel Lorenzo, a Mescalero […]
Some New Mexico-based reproductive justice and LGBTQ groups express mixed reactions to Vice President Kamala Harris as Democrat’s presumptive nominee for president.
Marshall Martinez, executive director of Equality New Mexico, said he was “very excited” about a woman of color campaign for president. But Indigenous Women Rising founder and Executive Director Rachel Lorenzo, a Mescalero Apache/Laguna Pueblo/Xicana, said they are neutral right now about Harris being the likely candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Martinez said Harris has some history as both a prosecutor when she was the California Attorney General and when she was senator for the state of California that “we don’t love,” but he said every candidate will likely be “problematic for us in some kind of way.” He said that he is excited because given the community Harris comes from as a woman of color from California,“ she comes with an innate understanding of our struggle.”
Lorenzo, who uses they/them pronouns, said IWR’s primary concerns are tribal sovereignty and reproductive rights. While some have spoken of Harris as an advocate for reproductive justice because she has raised the issue of Black women’s high rates of maternal mortality, Lorenzo said they respectfully do not agree with that interpretation of Harris as a candidate.
“We always talk about our movement being intersectional. Reproductive justice isn’t just about abortion access, it’s about safe communities, access to good education, clean environments to raise our families in and it also includes sex worker rights,” Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo said they are concerned about Harris’ record during her time in California on sex workers and that “actions speak louder than words.” During her time as a prosecutor and a senator, Harris worked to shut down internet sites that allowed sex workers to advertise services more safely.
“That’s why we’re more concerned about what she does versus what she says and especially since this country was founded on racism and taking Indigenous lands, it’s hard to validate a system founded on so much violence, even if a woman of color is at the top of the ticket,” Lorenzo said.
Martinez said that President Joe Biden was “really good on most LGBTQ issues” and both by virtue of experience and the community she comes from as a woman of color, “Harris is likely a little bit better.”
Martinez also said that Harris as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic presidential ticket has given voters who care about LGBTQ issues a “reason to be positive about showing up to vote in November.”
Martinez said he thought that Harris’ age, at 59, was also a plus for LGBTQ voters. She was more likely to have known individuals who are out as LGTBQ individuals than the previous generation.
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Health and Human Services established new rules for Title IX that expands protections for students who are LGBTQ, as well as other expansions. Some advocates have said that Biden intended to establish another rule that would have expanded protections for transgender students in a second administration.
Biden administration rolls back Title IX restrictions put in place by Trump
Martinez said that EQNM is relying on the idea that Harris will at least have the same position on LGBTQ protections under Title IX that Biden had as well and “the same drive to get it done.”
“I think the nature of her being a vice president, there’s some stuff we don’t know yet. But I’m hopeful she would go even further,” Martinez said.
One of the reasons he has hope is because Harris did a series of town halls on reproductive rights and she mentioned the intersection of LGBTQ issues and reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
“What we know is, we don’t have to teach her what those intersections are, she already gets it. From there, when she was in the senate and when she was running for president [in 2019], she spoke a lot about LGBTQ issues and she attended many Pride festivals,” Martinez said.
He said he was impressed because Harris didn’t just ride in a car in the parade in order to be seen, but that she did an onstage rally and a question-and-answer session at the Pride festival she attended. He said she really engaged with the community and “to me, that’s how you show up for the community.”
“Harris was never the person who shows up to walk in a parade of one,” Martinez said.
Martinez said he is also hopeful that Harris can beat former Pres. Donald Trump in November. He said that when Biden endorsed Harris, “the excitement really changed.”
“In that last few days, we’ve seen a lot more affirmative ‘I’m with her’…we talk about the enthusiasm gap. The best indicator of that gap, early on, is whether or not the base communities are motivated to volunteer and give money to do the work. We saw that motivation drastically increase,” Martinez said.
Lorenzo, however, said they want to know what Harris’ plans are specifically for reproductive health in Indian country. They said the Biden administration would address the Hyde Amendment and it didn’t.
The Hyde Amendment is a decades-old measure that prohibits federal funding to be used for abortion services. This means that for decades, Indigenous individuals cannot access abortion through Indian Health Services.
Lorenzo also said they would like to have seen Harris spend more time engaging with abortion funds, midwives and doulas. Lorenzo said that while IWR has been invited to various meetings and listening sessions with Harris in the past, the meetings were not always accessible due to a lack of internet platform participation and because the meetings were held only in major cities.
Lorenzo said they want to see action from Harris, not words. “We heard great words from Biden on the campaign about protecting abortion access. One of the most basic things he could have done was recodify Roe v. Wade. While I don’t agree with recodifying Roe, we haven’t seen much action. We haven’t seen action on Hyde but he talked about it,” Lorenzo said.
CHIMAYO, N.M. (KRQE) – A suspect is dead following a shooting involving the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office in Chimayo on Highway 76. Deputies are said to be okay. New Mexico State Police is investigating the shooting.
KRQE News 13 will provide updates as they become available.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — A leader in the New Mexico Republican Party was arrested Wednesday, accused of a deadly hit-and-run in Las Cruces.
Former Treasurer of the Republican Party in New Mexico, Kimberly Ann Skaggs, 54, was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaving the scene and tampering with evidence, jail records show.
Police documents show the charges stem from a deadly hit-and-run crash that happened Monday afternoon, which killed 40-year-old bicyclist, Andrew Brown.
Investigators believed Skaggs was involved after an investigation revealed that Skaggs allegedly was driving fast in the area, fled the scene after the crash and then tried to hide the vehicle from authorities.
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The investigation
According to police documents, a witness at the scene of the crash– 850 N. Fairacres Rd.– described seeing a dark blonde-haired woman flee in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV.
Afterwards, investigators said they saw on Flock cameras– A.I. powered license plate readers– a black Cadillac Escalade traveling near the site of the crash minutes before the incident.
READ MORE: Dona Ana County expands Flock license plate cameras as officials cite crime-solving gains
The license plates showed that the vehicle belonged to Skaggs and that, in September 2025, the Las Cruces Police Department had given her a citation for “racing on streets-exhibition driving.”
Investigators stated that a business on Picacho Ave. captured what they alleged was the same black Cadillac Escalade driving fast.
Then, the documents described how investigators tracked down the Escalade using OnStar’s live GPS tracking, discovering the SUV was at a property on the 5000 block of Northwind Road, which investigators said the Dona Ana County Assessors Office confirmed is a property owned by Skaggs.
On Tuesday, at around 6:41 p.m.– over 24 hours after the deadly hit-and-run– investigators executed a search warrant on the property and described finding the black Cadillac Escalade behind a home, under a red metal carport.
Investigators noted damage on the SUV consistent with the crash, highlighting that there was blood splatter near one of the front tires, markings on the front bumper consistent with hitting a bicycle and parts missing, which investigators said were the same parts found at the scene.
Dona Ana County jail records show Skaggs was booked on Wednesday afternoon and remains jailed without a bond.
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About Skaggs
On the official website of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Skaggs was listed as the treasurer before she was removed.
KFOX14/CBS4 has reached out to the Republican Party to learn more and are waiting for a comment regarding the arrest.
Also, according to election statistics, Skaggs ran for State Representative in District 36 in 2022 and 2024, losing both times to Democrat Nathan P. Small.
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SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether any Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law when pills reached New Mexico streets.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said, “make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities.”
The governor also shared a timeline from 2022 to 2025 that she said shows when she asked federal officials for help with New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis and violent crime.
Lujan Grisham said the first request came on June 21, 2022, when she wrote to then-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and asked for 50 additional federal agents.
She said she wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Sept. 15, 2022, asking for more agents, resources and support for New Mexico law enforcement.
Lujan Grisham said she wrote Garland a second time on Aug. 8, 2023, with the same request.
What came next?
About a month later, Lujan Grisham said she sent Garland a third letter and said New Mexico needed more federal law enforcement to curb violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
She said her most recent request came on Sept. 4, 2025, when she wrote to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and again asked for additional agents and resources.
The governor’s statement says those requests span several years as she pressed the federal government for more help in New Mexico.
Full statement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction.
Let me say that again: the Drug Enforcement Administration watched as 74,000 fentanyl pills were delivered to a mobile home park in Albuquerque, and they did nothing. And that’s just one transaction. Shockingly, the federal government stood by while monitoring shipments, tallying exact pill counts, and watching as these deadly drugs hit the streets.
There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway. The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.
If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise. New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.
Today, I wrote to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked him to investigate whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.
I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis.
- On June 21, 2022, I wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, imploring the FBI to assign no less than 50 additional agents to New Mexico to stem escalating drug trafficking and violent crime.
- On September 15, 2022, I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that the Department of Justice provide additional federal agents, resources and support to New Mexico law enforcement. We asked the department to match the level of investigative, analytical, and technical resources the FBI had deployed in its Buffalo, NY surge.
- On August 8, 2023, I wrote again to Attorney General Garland, renewing my request that the DOJ expeditiously assign more federal agents to New Mexico.
- On September 7, 2023, I wrote to Attorney General Garland for a third time, reiterating my request once more federal law enforcement support to curb violent crime, drug and human trafficking.
- On September 4, 2025, I wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, once again requesting additional agents and resources.
I have declared the surge of drugs like fentanyl to be a public health emergency. I have deployed the National Guard to both Albuquerque and Española. While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in.
New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business.
I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”
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