Len’s Political Note #755 Gabe Vasquez New Mexico 02

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September 30^th , 2025       Len’s Political Note #755 Gabe Vasquez New Mexico 02

2026                                          General Election

Gabe Vasquez won his second term in Congress in 2024 by 11,032 votes, a 52.1 to 47.9 margin.  The Cook Political Rating counts this race as a toss-up, but not all the pundits do.  Elected to his first term in 2022, Gabe Vasquez defeated the incumbent by 1,350 votes, a 50.3 to 49.6 margin – the closest Democratic victory that year.

New Mexico 02 is one of three districts in New Mexico.  It includes the entire southern border and about three quarters of the western border of the state. From the district’s northernmost spot on the western border, it extends roughly due east, drops south, extending gradually south east to a spot on the state’s eastern border.

On the drop south not far below the northernmost part of the district, there is a slight extension east to include a bit of Albuquerque.  That extension was a slight gerrymander after the 2020 census and shifted the district to a slight Democratic tilt.

Gabe Vasquez was born in El Paso Texas and grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  He fished and hunted with his grandfather and helped out in his grandfather’s television repair shop.  He went to high school in El Paso and to college at New Mexico State in Las Cruces, the city which became his home as an adult.

In college, Gabe Vasquez majored in journalism and was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.  Out of college, he became business editor for the Las Cruces Bulletin, executive director of the city’s Hispanic Chamber of Commers, and a local business’s vice president for public relations.

Gabe Vasquez followed his interest in politics working as a field rep for Senator Martin Heinrich and found his core vision as a kind of blue collar environmentalist working for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society, and as deputy director of federal lands for the Western Conservation Foundation.  In 2017, he was elected to the Las Cruces city council.

In the years before Gabe Vasquez ran for Congress, in his several roles, he grew to understand business, developed a commitment to reducing racial and other inequities, and became focused on the climate crisis.

Gabe Vasquez helped found Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project in 2017 which provides “communities of color with sustainable opportunities for community engagement, access and education around public lands and waters…”.   He was instrumental in the creation of the Outdoor Equity Fund which began to award grants in 2020; grants toward ensuring that “access to the outdoors would be low-cost and available for all New Mexicans.”  Although these projects created jobs and new businesses, his business oriented ambition was best expressed by the Outdoor Equity Fund’s Incubator and Accelerator … which awarded grants to support “early stage outdoor businesses…..”

In Congress, Gabe Vasquez has served on the Agriculture Committee and the Armed Services committee. He introduced legislation to make teachers in tribal schools eligible for federal pensions, a benefit intended to alleviate a shortage of teachers in those schools. He voted to require health care workers to have received the Covid vaccine, supported the Tik Tok ban based on China’s access to user information, and, after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate, was among the first to call for the President to withdraw from his campaign for reelection.

In Congress, Gabe Vasquez has been able to find clever solutions where ordinary ones would not work.  As with federal pensions for teachers in tribal schools, he helped bridge the differences between farmers and preservationists by supporting a plan to compensate farmers for livestock killed by wolves.

During Gabe Vasquez’s relatively brief tenure as a Member of Congress: New Mexico has become a fossil fuel power.  In response to that change, Gabe Vasquez has focused on ensuring decent pay for those working in oil and gas fields, paying special attention on the health impacts on workers and their families from the fossil fuel jobs. Gabe Vasquez has not become a shill for the oil industry.  He is committed to expanding clean energy in New Mexico.  He has helped bring his state the manufacture of solar panels, wind towers, the creation of electric truck charging stations, and the capture and storage of energy.  All the while, he has been focused on keeping energy costs low in New Mexico.

Gabe Vasquez has made enough of a nuisance of himself to the Trump administration, ranging from his support of abortion rights to voting rights, that they have targeted him in the 2026 election.  Although a Marine veteran and several Republican state legislators have considered running for New Mexico 02, currently the only Republican candidate is Eddy Aragon. He owns and is the CEO of KIVA AM radio and host of “The Rock of Talk”, a conservative radio talk show. Aragon praises Donald Trump’s use of his executive authority, but argues, on his own behalf, Trump needs to sustain a majority in the House of Representatives. Before Aragon turned to talk radio, he was in the real estate business.

DONATE.  Help build Gabe Vasquez’s campaign war chest.  It looks like he will be facing a wealthy man who reaches out to the community every day without having to pay for advertising.

Other Candidates for the House in Texas and Nevada.

AZ 06. Former Marine Drill Instructor JoAnna Mendoza v Inc Republican Juan Ciscomani. The child of farm workers, she joined the Navy at 17 and then the Marines.  She returned home with her son Aidan after being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  The incumbent is a graduate of Arizona State and a former advisor to the Governor. DONATE to JoAnna Mendoza’s campaign.

NV 03 Inc Democrat Susie Lee v one of three possibilities.  A high school and college swimmer trained in water issues, she moved from her work in New England to Las Vegas for a job with the mayor. She married a casino owner, became a philanthropist and a politician.  Seen as vulnerable, three Republicans are running to oppose her.  DONATE to Susie Lee’s campaign.

TX 15. Tejano musician Bobby Pulido v Inc Republican Monica De La Cruz.  The Texas Tribune says that Bobby Pulido is the only Democrat who can win the seat.  The child of musicians, his popularity waned as the popularity of Tejano music waned.  He earned awards as an actor, continued singing, and conducted a farewell tour before announcing his candidacy for Congress.  The incumbent was an insurance agent elected in 2022 after Vicente Gonzales, to whom she lost in 2020, moved to TX 34.  DONATE to the Bobby Pulido campaign.

TX 23  International railroad engineer Santos Limon v inc Republican Tony Gonzalez or Gun Manufacturer Brandon Herrera or Rancher Susan Storey Rubio.  In 2024, Santos Limon, who had helped create high speed trains all over the world, came home to lose an underfunded race for Congress.  He earned less than 40% of the vote against moderate Republican Tony Gonzalez, who had defeated challenger Brandon Herrera in an extremely close primary run off.  Santos Limon could get elected if he raises money and faces the more extreme Herrera in 2026. DONATE.

TX 28. Incumbent Democrat Henry Cuellar v TBD.  In Congress for more than 20 years, he could contest Maine’s Jared Golden for most conservative Democrat.  He has fended off progressive Democrats and Republicans in this conservative Democratic district, but he may be his own toughest opponent.  He and his wife have been indicted for receiving bribes from Azerbaijan and laundering that money through a Mexican bank.  Cuellar insists he is not guilty and always acted In the best interest of the United States.  No Republicans have announced, but he is too vulnerable not to attract an opponent.  DONATE.

TX 34. Incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez. v ex US Rep Maya Flores or one of her two primary opponents.  Vicente Gonzales left high school without graduating, but found his way on his own earning an Associates degree, a BS, and a law degree.  After practicing law, he was elected to congress in 2016 as a business-oriented Democrat.  He still is. He moved to the more Democratic TX 34 and defeated incumbent Maya Flores who had been elected in a special election. He defeated her again in 2024.  She has denied being a follower of QAnon, but is certainly on the far right of the Republican party, DONATE to the Vicente Gonzales campaign.  See Len’s Political Note #7