Democratic nominee in CD3 inspired by state senator father
Teresa Leger Fernandez says he taught her it’s about ‘us’
During a virtual candidate forum put on by the Democratic Party of Santa Fe last month, the seven candidates running for the party’s nomination for the 3rd Congressional District were asked to name a mentor or historical figure that had a significant influence on them.
Teresa Leger Fernandez, who last week was the runaway winner of the Democratic primary after winning more than 40% of the vote, said it was
her father, Ray Leger, a former state senator.
During a phone interview Thursday, Leger Fernandez recalled when she was young riding with her father as he took their cattle to market and him telling stories about signs posted at some businesses that said “No Mexicans and no dogs allowed.”
“He felt that the way you dealt with racism and bigotry is in your own community,” Leger Fernandez said. “I often talk about the fact that, in New Mexico, we live in a multicultural state and we’re able to recognize that there’s strength in diversity. … In New Mexico, there’s no ‘other,’ there’s an ‘us.’”
Leger Fernandez embraced that notion and spent the rest of her life with that principle in mind, working for social justice as a civil rights attorney and tribal advocate. She also built her campaign to represent the most racially and economically diverse of New Mexico’s three congressional districts around the idea of bringing people together, building community and nurturing the idea that all of “us” are in it together.
But as her father taught her, it should never be an “us” versus “them.”
“We need to work toward inclusiveness,” she said.
Leger Fernandez said her win last week couldn’t have happened without the help of supporters.
“When I did the Ranked Choice Voting, I didn’t do it by myself,” said Leger Fernandez, who won a court case against the city of Santa Fe in 2017, forcing it to implement a method of selecting winners in municipal elections that city residents had called for 10 years earlier. “You do it with coalitions, you do it with people around you.”
Special interest groups rallied around Leger Fernandez’s campaign. She won the support of many of the organizations coveted by progressive Democrat candidates like her, including Planned Parenthood, EMILY’s List, the Sierra Club and End Citizens United. She also received endorsements from such luminaries as New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Leger Fernandez’s “Teresa for All” primary election campaign finished with what was billed as “Unity Week,” an effort to get out the vote.
She says she will rely on the same principle if she is elected to Congress in November.
“I spent a lifetime bringing people together around problems to find solutions,” she said. “I recognize that our communities are interconnected and solving our problems requires that interconnective solution.”
But first, she’ll have to win the general election in November. She’ll face off against either Alexis Johnson or Harry Montoya, whose race in the Republican primary was too close to call at the Journal North’s deadline.
A footnote about Ray Leger: he used to be a Republican.
“A lot of northern New Mexicans way back then were Republicans,” Leger Fernandez said, adding that it probably went back to Lincoln when New Mexico was still a U.S. territory. “Slowly, northern New Mexico switched over to Democrats because Democrats reflected their values.”
One term at a time
Democrats have dominated the district since its inception in 1982.
The three Democrats who have represented the district over the past four decades — Bill Richardson (1983-97), Tom Udall (1999-2009) and Luján (2009-present) — each held the seat for at least five terms and never failed to be reelected. Each left the office on their own accord.
Only once has a Republican held the seat, and even then not for a full term. Bill Redmond won a three-way special election in 1997 to finish out Richardson’s last term after he resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
But Leger Fernandez isn’t looking for a home in Washington, D.C., just yet.
“We’re going to work hard to win. You are elected to Congress when you win the general election in November, so I’m going to have to work to get every vote out and not take anything for granted,” she said.
Leger Fernandez is already familiar with Washington, D.C. Several years after graduating from Yale and earning her law degree from Stanford, she served as a White House Fellow during the Clinton administration. She was also a liaison between the White House and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and served on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation during the Obama administration.
Asked whether, if elected, she planned to stay in the seat as long as her Democratic predecessors, Leger Fernandez said she’d take it one term at a time.
“I can’t answer that,” she said. “When I win in November, two years later, I will have to face reelection again.”
Her father had staying power, she notes. After earning a degree in education from New Mexico Highlands University, he began a career as an educator and wound up being the longest serving superintendent of schools in West Las Vegas Schools’ history. His tenure as a state senator lasted from 1973 to 1980.
Leger Fernandez remembers going to the Roundhouse when her father was a senator.
“I’d go to hearings and say, ‘That’s my dad.’ I was so proud of him,” she said.
Her mother, Mela, was also a great influence on her life. Her parents were apparently a great team. Both are honored on a roadside marker in Guadalupe County for their advocacy of bilingual education. Leger Fernandez said that her mom helped draft the state’s Bilingual Education Act, then worked to develop a curriculum and train teachers.
Leger Fernandez hopes to make her parents proud, though both are no longer living. Her mother passed away in 2006 and her father died after a battle with cancer in 2009.
I SPENT A LIFETIME BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER AROUND PROBLEMS TO FIND SOLUTIONS. I RECOGNIZE THAT OUR COMMUNITIES ARE INTERCONNECTED AND SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS REQUIRES THAT INTER-CONNECTIVE SOLUTION.
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINEE IN 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT