Healthcare may be winning issue

From 1981 through 2018, the Republican Party controlled the 2nd Congressional District seat in southern New Mexico, with one brief exception. In 2008, when Rep. Steve Pearce opted not to seek a fifth term (running unsuccessfully for the Senate instead), Democrat Harry Teague won the election.

But then Pearce returned to re-run and re-take the seat two years later, for what turned out to be four more terms in Congress.

Then, last year Pearce chose a run for governor instead of a fifth term and Xochitl Torres Small won the seat back for the Democrats — by the narrowest of margins.

For her to win re-election next year in this traditionally Republican district will be a formidable task. Three Republicans — Yvette Herrell, her general election opponent in 2018, and political newcomers Chris Mathys and Claire Chance — have announced their candidacies for the seat, and more candidates could be coming still.

After winning in 2018, Torres Small was typecast as part of a group of progressive young women who won their place in the most diverse U.S. House in American history. But she’s not acting nearly as “liberal” as some expected.

She’s not anti-fracking, which keeps the oil-and-gas industry at bay (at least for the time being).

She’s not anti-gun, but she is for reasonable gun control measures, as polls show most people agreeing with these days.

And while she has been critical of President Trump’s disjointed and cruel immigration and border-wall policies, she’s approaching the issue from a common sense, humanitarian perspective, which generally plays well in districts that border Mexico.

But those aren’t the issues that will get her elected. Die-hard Republicans will oppose her no matter where she lands on their pet issues, but they don’t command a real majority in her district — just a plurality. The all-important independent voter is still up for grabs, and they care more about their healthcare than they do anyone’s rigid partisan positions.

That’s what Torres Small suggested a couple of weeks ago when she visited Santa Rosa, where I own and operate the local newspaper.

“Rural healthcare access is the biggest issue I hear all across the district,” she said when I tried to steer my brief one-on-one with her to immigration and green energy. With me at least, healthcare was all she wanted to talk about.

Her stop here was just one of many last month as the U.S. House stood in recess. Other newspaper reports I’ve read reflect that, while she did talk about other issues around her district, her emphasis was and is on healthcare.

And even with that issue, she’s taking a more moderate position than many of her Democratic Party counterparts.

“I’m not in the Medicare-for-all camp,” she told a group mostly made up of healthcare providers, who had gathered for a roundtable discussion with her at the Guadalupe County Hospital. “I haven’t seen a policy related to (healthcare) that really solves access challenges for rural communities.”

And, bingo, there’s her winning issue: rural access to healthcare. She campaigned on it last year, and she’s working on it this year. Her name is on legislation designed to bring more doctors and other healthcare professionals into rural communities — and as representative for one of the largest geographic districts in the U.S., that’s bound to play well with a lot of voters.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]