Yvette Herrell is ready for a rematch with a focus on the border and the economy

Editor’s note: As part of its coverage of the 2024 political campaign, the Albuquerque Journal has profiled candidates running in some of New Mexico’s more hotly contested races in November’s general election. We continue today with a profile of Yvette Herrell, the Republican running for election in congressional District 2. Look to last Sunday’s Journal for our story on her opponent, incumbent Democrat Gabe Vasquez.

Yvette Herrell is a familiar face at the Barelas Coffee House in Albuquerque’s South Valley. After breakfast there in early July, Herrell stopped to give a warm hug to one of the staff members.

Herrell was in town for the grand opening of her Albuquerque office on Coors. The 60-year-old Republican is in a political rematch against first-term congressman Gabe Vasquez. Herrell held the District 2 seat for one term and lost it to Vasquez in 2022 by 1,224 votes.

“Right now, the entire delegation is Democrat. So, I think it’s always good to have another perspective and share ideas and bring another set of values to the table,” Herrell said. “And I think there’s a lot of people that may be feeling like their voices are not being heard.”

This is Herrell’s second rematch for the congressional seat. Herrell first ran for the job in 2018 and lost to Democrat Xochitl Torres Small. She ran again in 2020 and beat Torres Small by about 21,000 of the 261,000 votes.

“Our state is worth fighting for, and I’ve been very blessed to have served and have now so much investment in me in terms of name ID,” Herrell said. “I have a track record, and people obviously know what I stand for.”

The Alamogordo realtor has a long political record. She served in the New Mexico House of Representatives for four terms, representing District 51 from 2011 to 2019.

Herrell had between $1.9 million and $6.9 million in assets, according to her 2023 financial disclosure report. She is a partner in Herrell Properties LTD and 7 Diamond Liquid Waste LLC. The most valuable asset is an Alamogordo retirement community, Centennial Village, owned by Herrell Properties, valued between $1 million and $5 million.

During her first congressional run in 2018, The Associated Press reported that Herrell failed to disclose that her real estate company earned $440,000 by renting property to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department and the New Mexico Environment Department.

Herrell thinks New Mexico needs a conservative voice on border policies, agricultural operations and energy policy, and on “federal overreach” related to the Endangered Species Act and an effort to create a Mimbres Peak National Monument in Luna County. She’d also like the federal and state governments to allow local school boards to make more education policy decisions.

She describes herself as an “all of the above energy person.”

“Other types of energy will come, whether it’s nuclear, whether it’s solar, wind, but traditional energy is something I believe we need to be protecting, and the policies in Washington, D.C., have been a bit crippling and in some ways need to be undone,” Herrell said.

Migration across the U.S.-Mexico border is something she believes needs to be addressed in the 2nd Congressional District.

“People are very afraid of who’s coming into our country,” Herrell said, and she would support legislation that would invest in technology for border patrol agents and reinstating the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy.

Herrell has a history of anti-abortion stances, with an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America for her votes in Congress.

In 2021, she was an original cosponsor of the Life at Conception Act in the House, a bill that would have declared that the constitutionally protected right to life is “vested in each human being” at all stages of life, “including the moment of fertilization.” In 2022, she cosponsored the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act, which would have limited abortion after 15 weeks.

“Abortion is such a very private and personal issue; that it has become a political talking point is unfortunate,” Herrell said.

Herrell said she would vote against a nationwide ban on abortion and would support protections for in vitro fertilization.

“Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court, it really is now a state issue,” Herrell said.

Herrell is a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump. As a congresswoman in 2021, she objected to certifying election results for President Joe Biden in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

There is no proof that the election was stolen from Trump in 2020, Herrell said, and she does not believe that Trump was responsible for the siege of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She thinks people were better off under Trump’s presidency, pointing to lower inflation and lower gas and grocery prices.

Herrell said she would not support any bill that could impede the Second Amendment. She believes reducing crime will require partnership between federal, state and local officials.

“People are concerned about the safety of their kids,” Herrell said. “It’s difficult to retain and recruit new businesses or professionals to come into a state that has such a high crime rate. And so these are solutions that I think need to be addressed at the state level, the local level, the community level, and then see how the federal government may be able to participate.”

Herrell said she is committed to working on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which expired in June. The federal program compensates some former uranium mine workers and some people exposed to radiation from nuclear testing. New Mexico’s Democratic congressional delegation has been vocally pushing to extend and expand the program to include more uranium mine workers and add New Mexico downwinders for the first time.

Herrell said she thinks RECA should be extended and expanded for uranium mine workers, but that the downwinders should get a separate program.

Herrell is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She thinks people get “too caught up in identity politics” and that party affiliation gets in the way of good policy decisions.

“I want people to get to know me as a New Mexican, as a Christian, as an American,” Herrell said. “I think we spend 90% of our time as people arguing about the 10% of the things that divide us instead of coalescing around the 90% of the things that we all agree on, like a secure border, safe streets, better education for our children. An economy that’s not flat, that’s growing. Business owners that are not being stifled with heavy regulation and cost of doing business.”