Political sign-wavers hit busiest intersection
Weekend stops at one of the busiest intersections in town may be louder than usual through Election Day as supporters from both sides draw honks from passing cars.
Tom DiRuggiero and Mark Friedman, who belong to local progressive group Indivisible Santa Fe, say they’ve been regularly gathering at the intersection of St. Francis Drive and Cerrillos Road with signs since the 2016 election, and these days they set up most Fridays or Saturdays in support of Joe Biden.
“I would personally like him to be more progressive, but I think he’s the sort of person that can change,” DiRuggiero said of Biden from a median Saturday. “I think he’s safe in New Mexico. In the rest of the country, I’m feeling OK.”
Last weekend, a group of Donald Trump supporters started gathering at another median across from DiRuggiero and Friedman, and the dueling demonstrations continued Saturday afternoon. The Democrats had signs about voting for Biden, while a man on the Republican side held a sign boasting a slogan for the conspiracy theory QAnon.
In 2016 in New Mexico, Hillary Clinton won 48.3 percent of the vote, Trump won 40 percent of the vote and former Libertarian Gov. Gary Johnson won 9.3 percent.
“Just trying to help the president out with four more years. We have to stand out here to help our president,” Republican Robert Valencia said. “There’s more Democrats than Republicans in New Mexico, but we will see what happens elsewhere.”