Former NM congresswoman Yvette Herrell appointed to Trump administration post

SANTA FE — Former New Mexico congresswoman Yvette Herrell has been appointed to a Trump administration post and is not planning to run next year for the southern New Mexico-based seat she represented for a single term after winning the 2020 election.

A Herrell campaign spokesman confirmed her plan to not run in 2026 for the 2nd Congressional District seat, which is currently held by U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat.

The seat has been one of the nation’s most hotly contested districts in recent years, but became more favorable to Democrats under a new congressional map that took effect in 2022. Vasquez defeated Herrell in last year’s general election, getting about 52% of the votes cast in the race.

The vote spread between the two candidates was larger than it was in 2022, when Vasquez ousted Herrell by a razor-thin margin.

Herrell, a former state legislator, was appointed by the president in June to be an assistant secretary for congressional relations in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She has not yet been confirmed by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where her nomination was sent. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is a member of that committee.

Herrell has worked as a real estate broker in Alamogordo since leaving Congress. She also owns an ice and water vending machine company and would transfer ownership of the company to a family business if confirmed, according to a public financial disclosure report obtained by the Journal.

As assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Herrell would hold a key post in a federal agency that employs nearly 100,000 people and oversees the U.S. Forest Service and other departments. If confirmed, she would replace Adrienne Wojciechowski, who stepped down in January after Trump took office.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently led by Brooke Rollins, who announced during a June meeting of the Western Governors Association in Santa Fe that her agency intends to repeal a rule that prohibits road construction and logging on 91,000 square miles of Forest Service land.

Rollins also recently announced plans to restructure the USDA by transferring most of the agency’s employees in Washington, D.C., to offices in five cities around the nation: Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Fort Collins, Colorado, Kansas City, Missouri, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Herrell’s appointment could lead to other Republicans entering next year’s CD2 race.

Eddy Aragon, a radio talk show host and former Albuquerque mayoral candidate, announced his candidacy in May and is currently the only GOP candidate in the race, according to federal election filings.

Vasquez is seeking reelection in the district, which now includes all of southern New Mexico and stretches north into Albuquerque’s South Valley.