U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com
Voters re-elected Teresa Leger Fernandez to serve a second term as U.S. representative of New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District (CD3), which includes Los Alamos.
Leger Fernandez received 382,816 votes over Republican opponent Audrey Trujillo with 300,049 and Libertarian Mayna Erika Myers with 19,971.
“Muchísimas gracias, Nuevo Mexico! …our communities and gente showed what it looks like to win in rural New Mexico,” Leger Fernandez said Tuesday night. “Together, we have shown that small places can do big things – and that when we listen to each other, we can turn pain into progress. Adelante!”
Rep. Leger Fernandez grew up in Las Vegas, N.M., and raised her children in Chupadero. She went from a Head Start participant to Stanford Law, and now in Congress she is delivering for New Mexico communities by holding the federal government accountable for starting the largest wildfire in our history, protecting our veterans, and securing funds to keep clean drinking water flowing throughout New Mexico.
In her first term in Congress, Rep. Leger Fernandez secured federal investments to provide more New Mexican families, farmers, and ranchers with clean water across our district – from Gallup to Clovis. She is bringing infrastructure investments to New Mexico that will support more good-paying jobs, from rebuilding our airports, roads and bridges, to plugging abandoned wells, to expanding rural internet access, and she passed her Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act to provide $2.5 billion in compensation for communities impacted by the wildfires.
As a cancer survivor, Rep. Leger Fernandez said that she understands how costly getting sick can be, and how hard it can be to access care in rural communities. That’s why she voted to bring down health insurance premiums and lower insulin costs for millions of Americans, to lower prescription drug prices and bring costs down for New Mexico’s seniors, and why she fought against and helped defeat the VA’s recommendation to close rural veterans health centers across our district, she said.
Rep. Leger Fernandez is a cosponsor of the Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust to protect its solvency and strengthen its benefits. She serves on the House Committees on Natural Resources, Education and Labor, and the Committee on House Administration and the Subcommittee on Elections, and Chairs the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States.