Congressional Notebook: Rep. Vasquez skips Biden visit; president pledges support for downwinders

There was a noticeable absence during President Joe Biden’s speech touting how a major piece of Democratic legislation was creating jobs in rural America — the New Mexico congressman who represents the district.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., was the only member of the state’s congressional delegation who didn’t attend Biden’s speech at a New Mexico facility being retrofitted to build wind towers.

Vasquez’s office said he had prior commitments to see his father.

Biden gave a speech Wednesday at the complex in Belen, which is in Vasquez’s district. Tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law a year ago, led to a flurry of work orders for wind towers, said Antonio Carrillo, the president and CEO of Arcosa, which manufactures wind towers.

Carrillo said his company inked $1.1 billion worth of work orders for such towers. So, it is spending $60 million to purchase and retrofit a facility where about 250 jobs will be created in The Hub City.

Biden’s speech drew a “who’s who” of Democratic leadership: Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández were on hand, as were Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Duke City Mayor Tim Keller, just to name a few.

But fellow Dem Vasquez was noticeably absent. The president even called him out by name and said he couldn’t attend.

Vasquez faces a political reality much different from his New Mexico peers in the U.S. House, who represent much more Democratic-leaning districts. New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District has been historically Republican.

Vasquez, a first-term congressman, defeated the Republican incumbent, Yvette Herrell, by less than a percentage point in 2022.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Vasquez said he sent staffers to Biden’s speech, and Vasquez also championed Biden’s policies.

He posted a picture on Wednesday of him and his dad embracing.

“I couldn’t be there because I needed to spend time with my father,” he wrote. “To those who are blessed to have your parents, be sure to spend as much time with them as possible — you never know how much time you have left!”

That didn’t stop his presumptive opponent in next year’s election, Herrell, from targeting Vasquez for missing the event.

“While Gabe Vasquez is dodging the President and we’re all trying to dodge Bidenomics, I’m in Lea County at the Parade & Fair with real hardworking Americans,” Herrell wrote on social media. “I’m not afraid to show up and do the work New Mexicans need in Congress!”

DOWNWINDERS: New Mexico’s “downwinders,” who for generations have strived for recognition and assistance for ailments resulting from their proximity to nuclear weapons testing and development, appeared to have picked up an important ally.

Biden, during his speech in New Mexico, offered up his support for the group.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., has worked with other members of the delegation to extend Radiation Exposure Compensation Act benefits to more people in New Mexico whose families have suffered from cancer and other ailments because they lived so close to nuclear weapons tests or worked in uranium mines. While introducing the president, Luján asked that the president help include a RECA amendment that would do just that in the National Defense Authorization Act, which is currently working its way through Congress.

“The film ‘Oppenheimer’ has been getting a lot of attention, but that first bomb that was tested was right here in New Mexico soil just south of where we are, and those families did not get the help they deserve,” Luján said. “Mr. President, we’re fighting with everything we have ... (to) make sure these families are seen and get the help that they deserve.”

Biden referenced the downwinders shortly into his speech.

“I’m prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of,” Biden told the crowd.

‘LOUSY QUESTION’: Biden didn’t take questions from reporters during his event in New Mexico. Well, most reporters.

At one point after his speech, when Biden was greeting and taking pictures with attendees, Fox News’ Peter Doocy somehow made his way over a fence that kept the media a decent distance from Biden.

Doocy approached the Commander in Chief and asked him about “testimony” that Biden talked business with one of his son Hunter Biden’s business associates, according to a recording of the interaction.

“I never talked business with anybody, and I knew you’d have a lousy question,” the president said.

“Why is that a lousy question?” Doocy responded.

“Because it’s not true,” Biden said.