By Jesus Garcia
Aug 27, 2024, 08:00 AM EDT
Rep. Gabe Vasquez has launched his first Spanish-language ad, titled “Hard Work,” seeking to attract Latino voters in New Mexico.
New Mexico House District 02 is 52% Latino.
“We know that things are achieved through hard work. You learn that when you are raised by a single mother,” Vasquez begins her message. “And it was through hard work that I got Republicans and Democrats to work together to protect our veterans, help our ranchers, fight the cartels on our border.”
The advertising campaign is worth six figures and is being broadcast in the Albuquerque and El Paso media markets on cable, streaming and broadcast platforms, the campaign told this newspaper.
“With hard work I will lower the cost of food and rent, so that we can all get ahead,” Vásquez promises, in the same tone as the Democratic Party’s national campaign.
Vasquez is running in District 2 against Republican Yvette Herrell, who has said she wants to end abortion in New Mexico.
This is not the first time that Vásquez has faced Herrel, whom she defeated in 2022 by just 1,350 votes, as he obtained 96,986 votes (50.3%), while she obtained 95,636 votes (49.6%).
The Democrat’s new ad does not focus on his opponent, as it did in June, when it highlighted Herrell’s plans to end abortion rights.
That spot, titled “In Her Own Words,” featured a video of Herrell bragging about wanting to eliminate all abortion rights in New Mexico while she was in the state legislature.
Vásquez then replaces her and speaks directly in front of the camera, pledging to always protect a woman’s right to abortion.
Vásquez chairs the Diversity Committee of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he promotes several projects and campaigns in favor of Latinos, whether they are farmworkers or those who work in service areas, but also at managerial levels.
“The work we have done in the committee is to raise awareness, especially with American companies, of the importance of Latinos in high-level positions in companies,” he said in an interview last February. “For me it is important, because my parents, my father and my mother, worked in maquiladoras, both for American companies in what is considered nearshoring today.”
Continue reading:
• Democratic Party strengthens campaign among Latinos and other diverse populations for Congress
• Republicans fear Kamala Harris will be a serious challenge to Trump
• Record number of voters defend the right to abortion and are willing to vote for it