Trump's top immigration critic could become the governor of a key border state [NM]

Trump's top immigration critic could become the governor of a key border state

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/20/politics/michelle-lujan-grisham-new-mexico-trump/index.html


Updated 4:11 AM ET, Mon May 21, 2018


Santa Fe, New Mexico (CNN)President Donald Trump's immigration agenda has few more outspoken opponents than Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who, as chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has served as the voice of Hispanic and Democratic members of Congress in condemning the administration's policies.

The New Mexico Democrat is hoping to take that message to a new platform next year, leaving Congress to run to be governor of her border state, where a win would position her to square off directly with Trump on everything from National Guard deployments on the border to his policies affecting legal and illegal immigration.

Signs of what could be to come are obvious on the campaign trail. At a pep talk for volunteers headed out to canvas on a recent Saturday at her Albuquerque campaign office, Lujan Grisham was introduced by two young undocumented advocates, one of whom, Ivonne Orozco, is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient and was New Mexico's teacher of the year.


Lujan Grisham dedicated part of her remarks at that event to an update on efforts in Congress to force a vote on preserving DACA on the House floor -- and slammed what she called "racist" and "bigoted" recent remarks about immigrants from Trump chief of staff John Kelly, which were met with boos and hisses from her supporters.

"So we called him out, we're going to keep calling him out, and while we do that, what they've done is now 50 Republicans are fighting with their speaker, and ... that is a big deal," Lujan Grisham said, crediting the local advocates with keeping the pressure on to force the vote. "Can you imagine the power we have as New Mexicans if we take that attitude and we bring it to every single neighborhood, every single community, we take it statewide and we show the rest of the world what New Mexicans are made of?"


The week since has seen the growth of that effort in Congress, including Lujan Grisham leading the way for almost all members of the Democratic Party in the House to sign on. In the meantime, she's also continued quieter efforts to push Republican leadership to work with her on immigration. Amid the tumult on immigration in Washington this week, reporters caught Lujan Grisham delivering one of her daily gifts to Speaker Paul Ryan, in this case a piñata shaped like a horse that she said symbolized the need to do more than be "show ponies." Lujan Grisham has been delivering gifts of items she has on hand every day she's in town with a note imploring Ryan to meet with her to fulfill a promise she says he made her to work together on the issue.


Lujan Grisham has two challengers in the Democratic primary but is widely considered the favorite to win on June 5. ..................................


If she clears the Democratic primary, she would face fellow Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican running unopposed in the primary who represents the southern part of the state in Congress. The state of New Mexico went for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, by 8 points in the 2016 election.
Along the way, Lujan Grisham has had strong words for what she calls the "racist White House," as well as the wall ("misguided, discriminatory campaign promise&quot and National Guard troop deployment (playing "politics with people's lives&quot .

But on the trail in New Mexico, Lujan Grisham sometimes doesn't talk about Trump at all. She spent as much time talking about education as DC politics in Albuquerque and didn't mention Trump at a stop in Santa Fe. Her campaign website has no section for immigration among its issues of focus, and Lujan Grisham says the single most pressing concern she hears from her constituents is jobs.
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