Congressional candidates hit the airwaves -- and each other
Jul. 2—Some of New Mexico's congressional candidates are hitting the airwaves, streaming services and each other as they duke it out in two of the most competitive and closely watched races of the November general election.
As Republicans work to flip two seats in a solidly blue state, voters can expect to see the good, bad and ugly as candidates and their operatives spend what is already shaping up to be millions of dollars in advertising.
Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced a $2.7 million ad buy in the Albuquerque and El Paso markets in its push to win back the 2nd Congressional District seat, which the GOP has set its sights on reclaiming.
Incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez and his Republican challenger, Yvette Herrell , who lost the seat to Vasquez by less than a percentage point two years ago, have already launched their first ads of the season, and both went on the attack.
Herrell's, which was placed on streaming video platforms such as YouTube and Hulu, arguably is the more hard-hitting of the two.
"Radicals on our campuses and a radical in our Capitol — Gabe Vasquez," begins the ad, which asserts New Mexico's freshman congressman "sides with dangerous criminals" when he voted against a bill to increase penalties on certain crimes.
The ad, titled "Radical," regurgitates a years-old TV interview in which Vasquez advocated for defunding the police. It also claims he deleted tweets "to mask his anti-America views and disguise his goal to dismantle our oil and gas industry and our country as we know it."
In a statement, Herrell said that as she travels the district, voters overwhelmingly tell her their top concerns are the cost of living, border security and rising crime.
"And they know that radical Democrats like Gabe Vasquez are responsible for those crises," she said.
Vasquez used Herrell's own words to slam her on abortion rights.
His ad features video of Herrell during a virtual candidate forum hosted by the state Republican Party of Valencia County in 2020. In the video, Herrell said, "I wish we could've eliminated all abortion in this state. ... Yes, I wish we could have gotten rid of all abortion."
"No Yvette, that's why we got rid of you," reads text on the screen.
The ad, titled "In Her Own Words," closes with Vasquez saying he will "always protect a woman's right to choose."
Vasquez's campaign launched the ad, his first of the season, on the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
"Yvette Herrell will say anything to distract attention from her record of failure and from being caught on video admitting to wanting to ban all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake," Dylan McArthur, Vasquez's campaign manager, said in a statement. "No ads can hide these facts."
Herrell accused Vasquez of mischaracterizing her position on abortion.
"Despite Gabe's lies, my position on abortion is very clear: I am proudly pro-life, but this is now a state issue, which is why I will not vote for a national ban," she said.
The other competitive congressional race pits New Mexico's senior senator, Democrat Martin Heinrich , against Republican Nella Domenici, the daughter of the state's last Republican senator, the late Pete Domenici .
Unlike Herrell and Vasquez, Heinrich and Domenici haven't gone negative, at least not in their ads.
Domenici, who grew up in New Mexico but only moved back a few years ago after spending much of her professional career on the East Coast, has tried to establish her roots in the state in her first two TV ads. The first shows Domenici at her childhood home in Albuquerque, as well as photos of her more well-known father, and the second sets to define her image as a trailblazer who graduated from business school nine months pregnant and at the top of her class.
"Nella Domenici will continue the Domenici legacy of demanding more on behalf of New Mexico in the United States Senate," Noah Jennings, her campaign manager, said in a statement. "Unlike Martin Heinrich, Nella's roots run deep here."
Jennings lambasted Heinrich's first TV ad, which is framed around his father's work ethic.
"As a lineman, he'd go out and battle the wind and the rain to restore the power," Heinrich says in the ad, which shows him bringing coffee to utility workers, driving a pickup and shaking a cowboy's hand. "I see that same work ethic all across New Mexico."
People who work hard "deserve to have something to show for it, to be able to provide, to save, to get ahead," Heinrich says in the ad.
"That's why I'm fighting to raise wages and to lower costs for energy, groceries and prescription drugs, and to create good-paying manufacturing jobs. I'll never forget who I'm fighting for," he says.
Jennings said Heinrich appears to be trying to rewrite history.
"But every day New Mexicans are feeling the pain his failed policies have caused: high cost of living, crisis at the border, crime spilling into our streets, and a stifled energy industry," he said. "He has failed at the job and his performance evaluation is due in November."
Heinrich's campaign fired back.
"Nella's ads, much like her campaign thus far, continue to leave New Mexicans with more questions than answers," the campaign said in a statement. "No amount of footage of Nella hiking in the Sandias will make up for her troubling record as Chief Financial Officer of Bridgewater Associates and history of fighting for Wall Street in East Coast boardrooms. New Mexicans know and deserve better."
New Mexicans also know that in this high-stakes election, the hits will keep coming.
The race for the 2nd Congressional District seat may be the most cutthroat.
The House Majority PAC, which is fighting for a Democrat majority in the House, recently announced more than $186 million in initial television and digital reservations for the 2024 election cycle across 58 markets, including nearly $2 million in the Albuquerque market and $935,000 in the El Paso market.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, which is dedicated to electing Republicans to the House, recently announced $141 million in ad reservations, including $2.3 million in the Albuquerque market and $694,000 in the El Paso market.
Although the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hasn't made any broadcast TV ad reservations in the Albuquerque and El Paso markets, New Mexico is among its digital reservations.
The National Republican Congressional Committee indicated it is going full-court press in New Mexico.
"We hope Gabe Vasquez is looking forward to months of voter education about his trouble with the law, open-border policies, and quest to defund the police," spokeswoman Delanie Bomar said in a statement. "The jets are hot and we're ready to blast out the message that Gabe Vasquez is too extreme for New Mexico."
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