SANTA FE, NM (AP) — United States Senator Martin Heinrich announced Thursday that he will run for a third term next year as he champions causes ranging from gun safety to abortion access and a transition to cleaner energy. in New Mexico, a major oil-producing country. state.
A victory for the state’s top senator would extend the Democratic dominance of the New Mexico congressional delegation. Heinrich won a second term in 2018 in a three-way race against a Republican political newcomer and former Governor Gary Johnson, who ran as a Libertarian.
Heinrich announced his candidacy in an online video that also highlighted federal spending on highways, bridges and wildfire relief.
Heinrich’s initial campaign address to voters touches on his advocacy for expanding early childhood education, as well as 2022 federal legislation that toughens background checks for younger gun buyers and prevents more domestic violence offenders from having Firearms.
“We have to continue the transition to clean energy and we have to build on our historic investment in early childhood education,” Heinrich said.
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Heinrich is chairman of the Senate’s joint economic committee and is among others who oversee intelligence services and energy and natural resource policy.
Immediate endorsement came from influential state Democrats, including newly elected Attorney General Raúl Torrez and House Speaker Javier Martínez de Albuquerque.
No candidate has yet emerged to challenge Heinrich.
He may have influenced the course of abortion rights in New Mexico with his 2020 endorsement of Democratic state Senate hopefuls who ousted incumbents who had voted against overturning the ban on most abortion procedures.
The following year, the Democratic-controlled New Mexico Legislature struck down the dormant 1969 statute ensuring abortion access after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.
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