Former U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland unveiled her Democratic gubernatorial campaign’s “affordability agenda” in an Albuquerque commercial kitchen Wednesday afternoon.
Standing alongside two campaign supporters, state Rep. Cristina Parajón (D-Albuquerque) and Communications Workers of America local 7076 President Megan Green, Haaland surveilled the kitchen space inside the nonprofit Street Food Institute on Fourth Street and recalled her early career of making salsa from scratch as a single mother.
“I was in a kitchen much like this one [where] I worked to perfect my salsa recipe so I could start my own business. I needed the flexibility because I couldn’t afford child care. I cleaned at my child’s pre-school to help pay the cost of an early childhood education, because that was important to me,” she said. “It’s expensive to be poor. I wish I had all the money I paid in bank fees when I only had $1 in my account.”
Haaland’s affordability agenda is part of a multi-faceted plan, which her campaign has dubbed “Deb’s Plan,” which so far includes four tenets: education, affordability, health care and public safety. It contains a number of campaign promises, including raising the state minimum wage; launching a multilingual calculator that lets New Mexicans see which tax credits they qualify for; and creating long-term savings accounts for babies born in the state.
During the news conference, Haaland said she would ban the practice of rent fixing, in which landlords use artificial intelligence programs to change the cost of a monthly lease on a regular basis. She also said she would restrict the amount of housing across the state that private equity firms can own. And she said she would outlaw predatory lending and “cut red tape” around homebuilding.
“For too long, corporations and big companies have driven up costs, making record profits while New Mexicans foot the bill, work long hours and still can’t get by,” Haaland said.
She blamed the Trump administration for driving up the cost of living and said she believes a push for renewable energy will bring more high-paying jobs to the state and keep utility costs down. In particular, she pointed to the state’s 2019 Energy Transition Act, which requires that utilities use 50% renewable energy sources by 2030, 80% by 2040 and 100% by 2045. Continuing to invest in solar, wind and geothermal energies will cement New Mexico’s status as a leader in renewable energy, she said.
State utility regulators are currently considering two proposals for private equity firms to acquire two of the state’s largest utilities: PNM and New Mexico Gas Company. The state attorney general has recently raised questions about the former and state lawmakers late last year turned out to oppose the latter.
Haaland said she’s had conversations with people involved in the proposed acquisitions and been told company leaders have assured stable utility prices for four years. It’s possible, she said, that decisions are made before the next governor is sworn into office in January of 2027.
“If I’m the next governor of New Mexico, I’m holding the companies accountable to make sure that they stay true to their promises,” she said.
She praised current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for her work in making New Mexico the first state to offer universal, no-cost child care. Hearkening back to her early days of collecting SNAP benefits in Albuquerque, Haaland said she couldn’t overstate the importance of such a program.
“I often think about how that would have changed my life,” Haaland said. “If parents have the opportunity to seek employment with sustainable wages and benefits, that helps our entire state.”
