KRWG Public Media is covering the New Mexico State Representative race for district 36. Early voting opens October 6th. Democratic candidate Nathan Small spoke to Noah Raess.
Noah Raess:
Can you go ahead and tell us about yourself and why you are running for office?
Nathan Small:
Yeah. So, my name is Nathan Small. I'm privileged to have been born and raised in New Mexico. I come from a family of educators and ranchers. And in my position now as House Appropriations Chair, I get to really help lead New Mexico through a time where prices at the federal level caused by this federal administration are hitting us so hard, but as a state, we're stepping up more to support people and so I consider my ability to support southern New Mexico, invest in southern New Mexicans, everything from housing and health care to food and infrastructure, education as very important and something that I'm really proud and focused on continuing.
Noah Raess:
And you kind of touched on this a little bit. But what are the top issues in your district and how would you address those?
Nathan Small:
As I have been going around talking with folks at their doors. I just brought the legislative finance committee down to Las Cruces for a three day meeting last week, affordability pressures are on top of everybody's mind, and it is just so frustrating that Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington have started a war that has caused all of our prices, starting with prices at the pump, to skyrocket 50 plus percent. But folks are seeing that in grocery stores. People felt last year the attacks on health care. And so as I talk with folks, New Mexico's investments in health care, in working to reduce out-of-pocket insurance costs, our strong commitment to housing, which is constructed over 600 housing units here in southern New Mexico, our commitment to infrastructure and education, our investments in lowering taxes for working families through the working Families Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, all of those things I think are top of mind. And so it's the rising prices caused by the president and how we're fighting back and helping New Mexicans through a very tough time.
Noah Raess:
And one topic that's been kind of really talked about a lot in southern New Mexico and really around the country has been data centers. I guess how do you think the state should handle new data centers or maybe even existing ones?
Nathan Small:
Great question and that has come up at the doors also. I think we have to, as you said, be focused not only on new projects, but on existing projects, including the Jupiter data center that's happening in southern Doña Ana county and put very simply, we have to have very clear and strong state rules and guardrails that are in place legally, that require these gigantic projects to not just pay their fair share, but to actually lower costs for the rest of us. That's especially true when it comes to energy. I believe that these large projects should not only pay for their electricity and make that renewable, carbon free electricity, they have the ability to lower or at least, kind of cap prices for the rest of us. Same when it comes to water. They need to use the most advanced non-water intensive cooling technology and then invest in other infrastructure and in water savings across, especially here in southern New Mexico. If they can't meet those standards, they shouldn't be here. And, I think that applies to again to Jupiter as well as other future projects. And I'm working closely with constituents and colleagues to build those rules, to craft those laws and I intend to pass those when we go up to Santa Fe.
Noah Raess:
And another topic that's been discussed a lot in the state is CYFD. They were in a lot of hot water, this year after an attorney general's investigation and reporting showing that CYFD dropped a child off at the US-Mexico border. What do you see as the best path forward for this department?
Nathan Small:
Actually, that news broke during another LFC meeting that I was chairing, and I publicly raised that as soon as I had heard about it there from folks in the meeting. I think with CYFD, we have to seriously look at breaking up the agency. We have to continue to invest in New Mexico's kiddos and in our families. I'm proud to have helped lead increased reimbursements and increased funding for foster families, several of whom I've talked to throughout my time here in the legislature that live down in district 36. We also have to work going upstream and provide a great deal more support, transparency, more social workers that are serving families. We have to protect all New Mexicans by making sure, if there are early on challenges, and legal issues that adolescents are getting into, that we have strong ways of stopping that and of improving that behavior. So I think we have a long way to go. We are starting to see some more folks that we're hiring in CYFD. I helped lead and have certainly helped fund the Office of the Child Child Advocate. I strongly supported that effort, made sure that we funded that aggressively and look forward to funding that even more, because that sort of independent oversight is critical as we go through this deep challenge. I'll also add that, one of the core challenges that we face and I know from growing up in New Mexico, is that we have significant challenges with poverty. And so that's why I'm actually pleased to see that universal child care, investments in education, investments in food, and in health care have actually reduced the childhood poverty rate in New Mexico and we're doing that more quickly, even as the Trump administration and the federal government are kind of throwing more obstacles in everyone's way. So we're going to keep fighting for New Mexico's families, investing in New Mexico's families, making sure that those parts of CYFD, that belong and other areas, in one example, we invest heavily and I'm proud to lead the investments in internships, summer internships, where we had, over 1000, youth here in Doña Ana county take advantage of those. We have to expand those investments, make sure those investments are going, probably directly to the school districts instead of through some of the state agencies as they are now, in order to best get kiddos the support, the work experience and that feeling of belonging and community.
Noah Raess:
And, New Mexico has ranked near the bottom in terms of education for many years. What do you think needs to be done to turn this around?
Nathan Small:
We're seeing some of our investments begin to move the needle. Chief among those are the summer reading program, our literacy coaches, and other investments in literacy that are seeing some real improvements. We have recently begun investing in that. I think we have to continue there. We're seeing some of the strongest gains in some of the kiddos who are part of the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuits. But we have to go further. Investing in bilingual education, investing in bilingual educators, investing in educators across the board, as well as more wraparound support staff for students at school. We've already taken a big step with healthy school meals. We have to continue that work, and we're looking to expand the idea of community schools so that those schools are serving community members, of course, serving kiddos, and being sort of more year round, places in their communities that help folks get ahead. Now we're starting, we have to focus on math and do some of the same things around literacy that we're seeing have started to create some success. We've seen graduations begin to rise, and Las Cruces Public Schools is one of the leaders there. We have to double down on that. I'm very excited about career technical education and our ability to get students exposed to the workforce in a way that benefits them financially, gives them a sense of belonging and purpose in our community, and shows them some of the incredible options that are out there. And I think with career technical education, with work based learning, those are real opportunities for us to kind of expand engagement that students have and to see the successes, sense of belonging, pride and purpose that follow there. So we're making some progress. LCPS is about to open up a new, career technical education building. We've made some serious investments there, and we're going to keep doing that work because we know that's what kids want. We know that's what families need.
Noah Raess:
Finally, what else do you think is important for voters to know about you or your campaign?
Nathan Small:
You know, for me, this is a moment where, as a state, we have our strongest budgets, and we have to dedicate those because a, a budget is really sort of a moral document. As I chair the Appropriations Committee, I'm focused on investing in housing, investing in infrastructure, and protecting and saving our water, which we've made strong strides in, especially working with New Mexico State University and their experts there. I think we have a really actually a remarkable moment, when New Mexico has these resources to keep cutting taxes for working families, making life more affordable through our investments, at the same time, really providing new and exciting economic opportunities for young people, strong workforce training where we have really invested in apprenticeships and other supports for a broad range of trade and blue collar work that really does improve our state, at the same time providing good careers for people. I also want to mention, you know, as a lifelong conservationist, as somebody who helped lead the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument, were fighting back against the Trump administration and some Republicans' efforts to sell off public lands. And in fact, we're going the different direction in New Mexico. We're creating new public lands because we know those provide low cost opportunities for recreation. They protect our water, they protect our watersheds and they're important for families. So I'm proud of that work. We're going to continue to do that work. And I, also welcome in public input and the opportunities for folks to share their values and their vision. It's one of the things as appropriations chair that I'm really proud of is we have public input at all of our meetings, in fact, suggestions and solutions that folks bring to me here in southern New Mexico, we get to implement as a state. And I'm going to stay focused on doing that.
