Trump ally running for Congress: New Mexico State wants to fire me
ALBUQUERQUE — A former Trump administration appointee running for Congress in a closely watched race in Southern New Mexico says his university is trying to fire him for seeking the seat.
Gavin Clarkson, a business law professor at New Mexico State University, said this week the school told him that his leave of absence had been revoked and his employment would be terminated if he didn’t return to work.
The Republican said he requested a leave of absence until January 2020 after he was appointed to a Bureau of Indian Affairs position. “The letter granting my leave did not specify that the leave was contingent on anything or subject to revocation,” Clarkson said in a statement.
But Clarkson resigned from the agency last year following a harsh inspector general report into the loan program he directed, according to stories by ProPublica and The Washington Post. Clarkson called the reports “fake news” and said he stepped down to run for Congress in a sprawling district that sits along the U.S-Mexico border.
New Mexico State spokeswoman Minerva Baumann told The Associated Press that the university doesn’t comment on personnel matters.
Clarkson, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, is one of four Republicans seeking the seat currently held by Rep. Steve Pearce, who is running for New Mexico governor.
The others are state Rep. Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo, former Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman and Lovington resident Clayburn Griffin. Former Eddy County Commissioner Jack Volpato of Carlsbad announced Thursday he was withdrawing from the race.
Las Cruces water attorney Xochitl Torres Small and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Madeline “Mad” Hildebrandt are seeking the Democratic nomination.
Democrats have long targeted the heavily Hispanic congressional district along the U.S.-Mexico border where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans. But the district has remained in GOP hands largely due to Pearce, who has attracted support from Hispanics and the region’s oil and gas interests.
The race is one of many expected to draw national attention in the 2018 midterms because it might help determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.