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While New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is busy making national television appearances to tap dance around speculation that she’s on the short list to be named Joe Biden’s running mate, she has yet to produce a plan, viable or otherwise, for the economic recovery of our state. The governor’s inaction does nothing to provide hope to the nearly 125,000 New Mexicans who have filed for unemployment since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

It has been nearly six weeks since Lujan Grisham closed thousands of businesses she deemed “non-essential.” Now, instead of offering solutions, opening businesses and getting New Mexicans back to work, the governor has chosen to use the crisis to advance her own national ambitions and further her radical agenda. New Mexico was one of only five states to force gun stores to close in a blatant attempt to restrict our Second Amendment rights. Meanwhile, the governor allowed abortion clinics to remain open despite a shortage of medical supplies and personal protective equipment that is needed to combat the spread of the virus and treat those already infected. …

Clearly, the only businesses that are “essential” are those that promote the governor’s agenda. And that, apparently, does not include our places of worship. On the eve of Easter, the governor extended her executive order banning mass gatherings to include churches and other houses of worship, which inhibits many of them from even conducting online services.

If that weren’t enough, the governor attempted to use the crisis to modify New Mexico’s election laws to allow for unsecure mail balloting. In a brief filed with the state Supreme Court this month, the Governor’s Office told the court it had the ability to modify the election process outside of the will of our elected state Legislature. Fortunately, our state Supreme Court rejected (that). In the words of Chief Justice Judith Nakamura, “I am very concerned whether one branch of government can say to the other one ‘take the powers reserved to us in the Constitution.'”

New Mexico’s congressional delegation has also failed to provide any road map for economic recovery. In fact, while the CARES Act, which provided emergency relief to businesses and citizens alike, was making its way through Congress, Rep. Ben Ray Luján wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisting several components of the Green New Deal be incorporated into the House version of the bill. Luján showed he was willing to allow Americans to suffer to further his agenda by promoting legislation that would only further devastate the economy.

New Mexicans deserve more than Lujan Grisham’s agenda-first leadership, which has landed New Mexico on the lowest rungs of most positive economic indicators like employment, GDP and economic growth. At a time when leaders should … focus on the getting the best outcome for a state and its residents, our leaders are letting us down, again.

I encourage leaders of both parties, in the Roundhouse and in Washington, to let this national crisis be a time where we can finally start leaving political agendas at the door and start putting New Mexico first.