Democratic Congressman Gabe Vasquez wants stricter oversight at a nuclear repository near Carlsbad and more protection from oil and gas drilling on public land.
Vasquez made his final plea to conservative southeast New Mexico in a recent tour of small towns in the region in his bid for a third two-year term as U.S. representative for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District.
A former Las Cruces city councilor, Vasquez was first elected in 2022, defeating Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell by a razor-thin margin of 1,350 votes – less than 1% of the total vote.
Following a redistricting process led by Democratic state lawmakers and unsuccessfully challenged in court by Republicans, Vasquez defeated Herrell again in 2024. His margin of victory was more than 11,000 votes, about 4% of the votes cast.
This year, Vasquez is running against Republican Greg Cunningham, a former Albuquerque police officer. Cunningham is a native of the south valley of New Mexico’s largest city, a portion of Bernalillo County that was added to the 2nd District during redistricting.
Adrian Hedden | Carlsbad Current-Argus
Election Day is Nov. 3, and Vasquez was in Carlsbad Tuesday, Oct. 6, as early voting began to open a canvassing campaign for the final month of the election cycle.
The event in Carlsbad followed stops in Artesia and Hope. On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Vasquez stumped in Mescalero, Cloudcroft and Alamogordo, seeking support in southern New Mexico’s rural areas that typically lean conservative.
The Carlsbad area is home to heavy oil and gas development amid the Permian Basin, the busiest oilfield in the United States, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – the nation’s only underground repository for nuclear waste.
Vasquez said stronger federal oversight was needed at the repository operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, especially considering an Aug. 19 accident where a five-person emergency hoist collapsed about 1,600 feet into the underground.
“The DOE needs to do more to do its part to improve the infrastructure at WIPP and the safety of WIPP workers,” Vasquez said. “I think we need greater oversight. We can’t have these accidents happen every once in a while and pretend it’s okay. We definitely don’t want to see a major disaster.”
Vasquez also was critical of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal public land throughout New Mexico, including oil and gas drilling in the Carlsbad area.
Vasquez said the bureau and its parent agency, the Department of Interior, have prioritized fossil fuel extraction to the detriment of other uses such as outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation.
“The BLM lands are multiple land uses,” he said. “I want BLM lands kept in good conditions that are good for us as the people who enjoy them, good for the wildlife and protect and conserve our water resources.”
New America?
Vasquez criticized Cunningham as a Donald Trump loyalist who would carry out what Vasquez called the president’s extreme agenda at the expense of working-class New Mexicans.
“He’s going to come here and get that MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republican vote,” Vasquez said of Cunningham. “But I’m seeing Trump stickers come off the (Ford) F-350s.”
Trump endorsed Cunningham in an Oct. 3 video posted to the social media platform Truth Social where the president also commented that he would like to see New Mexico’s name changed to “New America.”
Vasquez called that suggestion “shameful” and criticized Cunningham for not speaking out to defend “something as basic as the name of the state.”
Cunningham characterized such outrage as a “distraction” and focused on his opponent’s record, contending that if reelected Vasquez would “defund” police and fail to lower costs for consumers.
When Cunningham spoke at the Republican Party’s Midterm Convention held Sept. 9-10 in Dallas, he accused Vasquez and “leftist enablers” of allowing crime to fester in New Mexico.
“Democrats in Washington and New Mexico have not made our families safer,” Cunningham said in his speech. “They have not equipped our police officers with the resources and support they need to do their jobs.”
In an interview during his Oct. 6 Carlsbad visit, Vasquez countered that he was supportive of law enforcement, pointing to a $250,000 federal appropriation to support a renovation project at the Carlsbad Police Department, including upgrades to its dispatch center.
That was one of a series of law enforcement-related measures Vasquez touted in a July 31 news release along with $3.4 million in appropriations to state and local agencies.
“The facts speak for themselves,” Vasquez said. “I’m going to continue to support local law enforcement. He (Cunningham) is clearly going to follow the Trump agenda.”
