KRWG Public Media is covering the New Mexico State Representative race for district 33. Democratic candidate Micaela Lara Cadena spoke to Noah Raess.
Noah Raess:
Can you tell us about your background and how that has prepared you to serve in office?
Micaela Lara Cadena:
Of course. I'm state representative Micaela Lara Cadena and I'm honored to be running for reelection. When I was first coming to this seat, I carried with me decades of organizing and advocacy that was appointed at the New Mexico legislature. So for years between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and then back home, where I was raised in the Mesilla Valley, I was learning from and listening to families that were holding so many issues close. So for years, I worked to improve and expand access to pregnancy related care people may need in their lives, from contraception to abortion to midwifery models of care with our New Mexico midwives. I'm really proud that those perspectives and those kinds of experiences shaped how I show up as a policymaker. I also, before I ran for office, I worked for a couple of years inside the New Mexico government. I was the bureau chief of recidivism reduction at the New Mexico Corrections Department. So since then, and I say it often, it almost should be a requirement that before someone runs for the state legislature, they should have worked in state government, because that, of course, deeply informs how I understand, the role of government in our state, the incredible efforts and lift of New Mexicans who are state workers and show up with so much integrity and care in their jobs every day, and of course, the ways that we can and should be improving those systems to meet the needs of our families.
Noah Raess:
Why are you running for office?
Micaela Lara Cadena:
Honestly, that feels like such a deep question. Running for office is a humbling experience. It's also an incredible honor to win and to hold the trust of voters who send me to Santa Fe and have for several years now. I'm running again for reelection as our state representative, because there's more to do. When I first got to the Capitol, I spent a couple of years making sure in our state that we had repealed a 1969 ban on abortion. At the time, there were naysayers saying, like the abortion issue is settled and, you know, we have a decades long precedent in Roe, but that as we knew it was under attack and with this Trump administration the first time around, those decisions fell quickly. So the first couple of years, I spent repealing New Mexico's ban on abortion so that in fact, we could uphold and protect access in our state. And then I worked a lot with the law offices of the Public Defender and our New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Shannon Bacon, at the time, on really important criminal legal reform, because I, like so many, understand that our families are holding complexities and traumas. In so many cases, people need access to behavioral health care. They need access to resources and programs and support, to care for their mental health and specifically to care for their substance use dependencies. So those are the kind of things I did for a long time. I'm running again because we have more to do. And, we have to fight for families these days, our families, and often in the face of a really dangerous and harmful federal government.
Noah Raess:
What do you think are the biggest issues facing your district?
Micaela Lara Cadena:
The biggest issues. So of course some of this falls closer to home, and some of it are the same kind of issues facing New Mexicans across our big and broad state. These days, more than ever, when I have the honor of talking to and listening to voters at their doors, especially, people are often, people are terrified. People are losing sleep, people are worried. And, mostly their big ask is about how we, as policymakers and legislators in New Mexico, are protecting our families and communities from a hateful and ugly and dangerous Trump administration. So when I have the honor of knocking at someone's door and ask somebody how they're doing, that's the weight that people are expressing and sharing, that's the heaviness. Like, how do we move through this moment? Beyond that and very much an issue close to home, another important issue for me is protecting our fronteriza communities, our border Latin communities from Project Jupiter. For those of you that somehow haven't heard of this yet, it's a proposed massive hyperscale AI data center campus for Trump's billionaire besties. But it comes with immense emission rates, immense water use, and as we've learned most recently, it's now been confirmed to be part of Trump's Stargate, like these federal efforts to use AI as a tool in our Department of War. So this is a project that moved without government transparency, all sorts of dirty deals and movidas on the back side, and so many, voters and constituents and families are saying that we deserve a say in our shared futures. On this project we did not get it. And then, of course, across the state, certainly here at home, the immense pressure of rising costs, whether it's health care or groceries or trying to fill up and get gas to get you through the week, like New Mexicans are feeling a lot and deserve meaningful solutions.
Noah Raess:
How would you address these issues?
Micaela Lara Cadena:
As dystopian as it sounds, when as a policy maker and someone honored to be in the state legislature, figuring out how to protect our families from Trump, we've been doing that for most of the time I'm in office. So again, I ran and won during that first Trump administration and we prioritize big time issues that we knew needed protection. So I'm really proud to have sponsored our New Mexico effort to repeal our 1969 ban on abortion, because certainly, as we saw the Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court turned around and repealed the longstanding precedent we had on Roe. I also sponsored a bill to enshrine many of the protections in the federal Indian Child Welfare Act here in state law through the Indian Family Protection Act, because native kids belong with their people and their tribes and their, their own, sovereign nations. But like I say, a pretty dystopian feeling to go into our capital in a year like this and really focus so much of our energy and effort on protecting ourselves from the feds. So we saw that when we passed a voting rights bill, our own effort to make sure that federal law enforcement agents were not present at New Mexico's polling places because democracy matters, upholding elections matters. We did immense work to try to further protect immigrant families and communities, including making sure that our local governments cannot directly contract with ICEW and other federal agencies who are coming to our communities and causing harm, and making profits off detention centers. So, day after day, this 30 day session in particular, and this term in particular, we've had to go back to the table to really be bold and creative and lift up states rights to protect our people from the dangerous Trump administration. To that last piece for, for Jupiter, I've been a consistent and clear voice. I've had questions from the beginning. I was at the county commission on September 19th when our county commissioners, in a rush, passed a tax break with billions of dollars, again, for Trump's billionaire besties and some tech bros. They passed a massive tax break. But I've been consistent in showing up and asking questions and demanding answers and even as they continue to, to move the ball and try to greenwash this harmful project, I'm grateful to stand alongside young people and activists and organizers that know that our community deserves better than this. And this fight is not over. And on the issue of rising costs, I'm immensely proud to be the vice chair of New Mexico's House Tax Committee. And since I've been the vice chair, we've lowered the gross receipts tax for the first time in 40 years. We've also introduced a new child tax credit. I'm proud of bringing that to life. And we've expanded our working families tax credit and our low income tax rebate. There is so much more to do and if I'm honored to run and when again, much of my focus will be on how we address affordability in our taxes.
Noah Raess:
Finally, what else do you think is important for voters to know about you and your campaign?
Micaela Lara Cadena:
So, again, I'm honored to be our state representative today and running for reelection. There's somebody else on this ballot in our Democratic primary. That's almost meaningless who they are. Because this is really a campaign about Jupiter and the Jupiter lobbyists are driving this, this campaign and this campaign season here in southern New Mexico. So the Jupiter lobbyist, unfortunately, in a really ugly and dishonest way, ran some attack pieces on me when I was at work at the Capitol showing up for our families during this most recent legislative session, the Jupiter lobbyists are the top contributor to the person I'm in this primary with and in a really dangerous move and something that certainly has made me feel unsafe, the Jupiter lobbyists, I found them outside my family home on our family property. When I found them here, they didn't even have the decency to address me or talk about why they would have been over here on my family property, but they're crossing the line. I have been vocal, and I have been clear. And I know, like so many of our voters do, that our community deserves better than this dirty project that was signed by, you know, some dirty backroom deals with some politicians that I guess we invested in themselves and not our shared future. But this election, it's all about Jupiter. I think for our communities, we deserve better than what this project is offering. And certainly the harm that's headed our way.
