LOS LUNAS, N.M. (AP) - Sitting in a small bakery in central New Mexico, oil executive Claire Chase listened to Republican voters ask her about her stances on gun control, religion and taxes. But one voter wanted to know about her 2016 social media post that was critical of Donald Trump.
Chase knew where the question originated. One of her fellow Republicans in the congressional race, former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell, has repeatedly slammed Chase in radio ads over the old posts. Chase has since said she was wrong and eventually voted for Trump for president.
“I’m going to say something politicians rarely say. I was wrong,” Chase said. “And I’ve been very pleased with President Trump and what he has done.”
Three Republican hopefuls are hitting the airwaves early as they seek to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small for a key southern New Mexico seat.
Chase, Herrell and businessman Chris Mathys are spending on radio and television ads months before the GOP primary and two weeks before a state Republican convention.
The early spending highlights their efforts to define their candidacies long before a barrage of expected attack ads from dark money groups and Democrats.
Chase responded to Herrell’s attacks with a six-figure ad blitz with images of Trump and Chase’s record as an anti-abortion activist. The television ads portrayed Chase as a political outsider and someone concerned about border issues. She also pointed to old emails from Herrell that showed she once sought support for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for president over Trump.
Mathys is scheduled to release his first television ad Saturday, showing his commitment to “stop the flow of foreign nationals who are crossing the border illegally and seeking baseless asylum claims.”
In each of the ads, the candidates are trying to show voters they are the strongest supporters of Trump in a district where he remains popular among Republican voters.
Whether that helps the eventual GOP nominee in the general election is uncertain. Some Republicans worry the massive spending to get through the GOP primary will leave their candidate at a severe financial disadvantage against the Democratic incumbent.
Federal election records show that Torres Small raised about $650,000 in the last months of 2019 and had about $2.3 million in cash on hand. The fundraising figure at the end of the year was more than all three of the Republican hopefuls combined.
Meanwhile, Torres Small is holding town hall meetings across the conservative-leaning, majority Hispanic district to draw attention to her bipartisan proposals after she voted to impeach Trump.
During a recent town hall in Belen, Torres Small danced around questions about impeachment and a proposed red flag law that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
“You don’t want a federal person telling the state what to do,” she said.
Torres Small repeated that she opposed any ban on fracking. She also sought to draw attention to her work on a bipartisan dairy farm bill that she worked on after her impeachment vote.
“The national media only wanted to talk about something else,” Torres Small said.
After the town hall, The Associated Press tried to ask her about the dairy farm proposal and her stance on low-grade nuclear waste in New Mexico. “Sorry, I gotta go,” she responded.
Torres Small defeated Herrell in 2018 by fewer than 3,000 votes to flip a historically Republican-leaning district.
The sprawling district is home to a lucrative oil region but also has some of the most impoverished communities in the U.S. The district houses the highest percentage of Hispanic voters in a state with the highest percentage of Hispanic residents.
Frank F. Ortega, a moderate Democrat and Belen city councilman, said he believed Torres Small was a good congresswoman for the middle-of-the-road district.
“You have to be bipartisan to get things passed,” Ortega said. “You can’t have everything.”
Chase dismissed Torres Small’s attempt to portray herself as a moderate and pointed out that the Democrat usually votes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Chase blamed Herrell for refusing to debate Torres Small in 2018 and vowed not to make the same mistake.
“It’s going to be tough. Xochitl is very good and smart,” Chase said. “But so am I.”
___
Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press’ race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
Please read our comment policy before commenting.