Herrell named as one of GOP’s ‘Young Guns’
WASHINGTON — If anyone needed proof that New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District race will be getting lots of high-profile attention this year, the National Republican Congressional Committee provided it this week when it added GOP candidate Yvette Herrell to its list of “Young Guns” likely to receive campaign support from Washington.
The GOP campaign organization designated Herrell a “Contender,” the second of three tiers to which Republican congressional candidates can be assigned. To be included on the Young Guns roster, candidates must meet specific goals throughout the campaign cycle to ensure their campaigns are able to operate effectively.
“We have an impressive, hardworking field of candidates across the country, and these Contenders are no exception,” NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers said in a statement announcing Herrell and eight other candidates across the country. “As primary season continues and we move into the general election, the NRCC is proud to support these proven champions through victory in November.”
The NRCC has said that candidates in the “Young Guns” program receive “the tools they need to run successful, winning campaigns.”
The announcement comes on the heels of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee decision in February to include Xochitl Torres Small in its roster of favored “Red to Blue” candidates. The “Red to Blue” program aims to help Democratic candidates that the DCCC, which is headed by Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, feel have a strong chance of defeating Republican incumbents in Congress.
Small, who won the Democratic nomination in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District on June 5, will square off against Herrell in the November general election. The two women are competing to replace Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, who is running for governor of New Mexico.
‘DREAMERS’: Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, on Friday called on Republicans in Congress to help pass legislation providing so-called “Dreamers” a chance to remain in the U.S. legally without fear of deportation.
Lujan Grisham made the appeal outside the U.S. Capitol at a press conference with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the sixth anniversary of the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – or DACA – program by President Barack Obama.
“Our immigration laws ought to reflect both our interests and values and be consistent with our nation’s commitment to fairness and equality,” Lujan Grisham said. “We ask all sides to set aside the vitriol and gamesmanship that is often a part of this debate and that blocks our ability to truly solve problems. The American people deserve nothing less.”
Although President Donald Trump criticized Republican immigration legislation early Friday, by late afternoon White House spokesman Raj Shaw told Politico the president intended to sign a bill that protects Dreamers if Congress sends it to him, as early as next week.