representative Melanie Stansbury thank you so much for being with us it's wonderful to be here um your District was radically changed during redistricting a few years ago and now it goes all the way from Albuquerque down e you know out east to Fort suner down nearly to Roswell over to Roso critics have said that the Democrats gerrymandered this district and that it disenfranchises Republican voters who dominate those rural parts of the district your opponent Steve Jones lives in rudo so why should you be the one to represent this District well first of all as a native New Mexican I actually grew up in a rural community I was born in Farmington we moved to Albuquerque when I was a kid but I love my district I've got 10 counties we go from as you said sandal County and Albuquerque all the way out to the East mountains and the plains out at Santa Rosa and Fort Sumer we go down to the northern part of Roswell and the Lincoln County area and we've got all of the east side of Valencia County this is tribal communities it's land grants it's farming and ranching communities and of course it's the Albuquerque Metro area and as somebody who grew up here somebody who was raised by these communities as somebody who's dedicated my entire life to working on issues that support New Mexico families that's my life's work is making sure that New Mexicans can Thrive and I believe that actually the redistricting made our state more well represented because now we have have districts that have all of the different kinds and diverse communities in each of the three districts and so you've got three members of Congress that are fighting that good fight every day in Congress for our communities you've been um talking about um voter rights a lot which are you more worried about the idea that people who aren't supposed to vote would cast a ballot or the idea that a legal voter would be prevented from voting well first of all I believe that this election is literally about our democracy and that our democracy is at stake right now you know you look at Donald Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election and the aftermath with January 6 and all of the legal contest that he put in the courts my greatest concern is about the Persistence of our democracy and of an authoritarian like figure who might refuse to accept the election results again so it's really important that we enage of course everyone to vote and to have their voices heard but that we secure our voting rights and here in New Mexico we have one of the safest in fact the top rated election system in the entire country just two weeks ago uh it was rated as the highest but uh what we know is that Donald Trump has said openly that he not only would refuse to accept the election results but he's been tampering with election systems especially in Battleground States across the country and so I think it's vital that we secure our voting rights uh when I'm reelected to Congress one of our top priorities is going to be to get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed to help restore the Civil Rights Voting Act and to ensure that we're protecting our voter Integrity across the country your opponent uh is a former Energy company executive you have a background in science and water issues what is your approach to The Climate crisis in a state where the economy is powered by oil and gas yeah well it's very clear the science is clear that science uh the science is very clear that climate change is already here and we see that in all the catastrophic fires and floods and storms that we've experienced here in New Mexico and just the last few weeks in the Southeast and across Florida and in fact in riodoso we had the largest fire in New Mexico history just a couple of months ago we lost 1,400 structures there were over 500 homes lost and the catastrophic floods and that came afterwards and so we know the urgency of climate change because it's here it's impacting our communities now while I've been in Congress it's been one of my top issues I've been championing climate legislation and I'm proud to have helped pass the inflation reduction act which is not only the largest bill to address climate and clean energy in American history but in the history of the planet and that bill has been delivering millions of dollars back to New Mexico we're building the largest wind farm in North America just out here in Torrance and Santa Fe counties we're investing in solar and wind Manufacturing in Bernal Leo and Valencia County and creating thousands of jobs in the process but the final thing that I want to say about this is that we have to make sure that this is a just transition and that all of our communities have the opportunity to participate in both the energy transition and to be safe from the impacts of climate change and so as the ranking member on the natural resources committee for oversight I've been leading effort in Congress to help pass just transition legislation to help our communities on the front lines let me dig into that a little bit more because you know wind farms take people to build them but ultimately not very many people work there so how do you accomplish this just transition without turning an entire industry uh you know having it uh vacate and leave us like the Rust Belt I think you have to think about the just transition as an overall economy the current economy that we have was built over the last 150 years and is dependent on a fossil fuel industry and so everything from our cars to our grid to you know manufacturing is powered by fossil fuels and so transition means that we're transitioning to clean energy sources and in the process we're building a new economy and we're creating thousands of new jobs in that new economy it doesn't mean that all the jobs will be in the energy sector it means they'll be in manufacturing they'll be in other sectors in natural resource stewardship and I can tell you that New Mexico is one of the largest recipients of inflation reduction act money as well as chips and science act money which we passed last Congress which is literally creating thousands of jobs for New Mexico in fact at this point we have more jobs than people um because we need to develop the skilled Workforce to work in all of these industries so a just transition is about a combination of creating New Economic Opportunity it's about making New Mexicans get jobs in the new industries that are being created as a result of it and it means that for our communities that are lowincome that are rural that maybe never connected to the grid we have you know communities that still are not connected to the grid that they have the opportunity to participate in that transition let me switch quickly to Crime New Mexicans are tired of having to wait for someone to open a cabinet so they can buy shampoo what do you think is the solution to our experience of retail crime and more generally property crime yeah I mean it's clear New Mexico is experiencing a crime epidemic just like so many communities across the country and what we know is it's being fueled by both drug trafficking and an addiction crisis it's very clear when you look at the data and you talk to law enforcement and property crime is a part of that overall addiction crisis so I've been working since I've been serving in Congress to help bring Millions ions of dollars back to our district working with our federal state and local law enforcement to help with crime detection intervention programs um to of course catch folks who are doing bad things but also to address the addiction crisis because really we are ground zero for the fenal crisis here in New Mexico and we have to rebuild the behavioral health system that's going to help our people get better and so I've delivered millions of dollars back to our district to help build um behavioral health clinics for folks who are struggling with addiction and it will continue to be one of my top priorities in the next Congress because our communities are really struggling and crime is a symptom of our communities really struggling to get by uh guns according to the governor's gun violence dashboard there was an 84% increase in firearm related deaths in New Mexico between 2011 and 2022 your opponent is a strong supporter of gun rights what will you do in Congress uh to keep New Mexicans safe from gun violence well I think one of the things that's important to understand is that there was a huge increase in violent crime especially during the pandemic so when you look at that time scale uh we're also looking at what happened during the pandemic but listen every 11 minutes across the United States there is another gun violence accident there is over 42,00 th000 shootings a year in the United States and we are the only upper income country in the world that is making the policy decision to not take action on gun violence there are very clear straightforward solutions that we know the vast majority of Americans support Universal background checks an assault weapons ban regulating ghost guns and the components that are associated with them but our colleagues across the aisle in Congress will not even sign a petition to allow a vote to happen on the house floor on gun violence now I am proud to have voted for a bipartisan gun safety piece of legislation that was past two summers ago but you know we know that there are solutions that will save lives and we have to have leaders who are going to go and fight and care for our communities because no parent should have to hold their breath when they hear a shelter in place no child should have to feel afraid to go to school people shouldn't have to think about whether or not they're going to be gunned down in church or a grocery store on the streets and so this is something that we have to address as a society and as a government and we need leaders who are going to do the work a recent analysis by the coalition to end homelessness showed a big increase in the number of seniors living on the streets and the numbers actually went up the most outside of Albuquerque what can you do in Congress to alleviate New Mexico's homelessness this rate yeah I mean we're also facing an affordable housing crisis here in New Mexico and it's happening all over the country and for me this is also a very personal issue I grew up with a lowincome single mom we struggled with housing insecurity in part of my childhood moved around stayed with friends and so I think for a lot of New Mexicans that's a reality but what we've seen over the last couple years is just the cost of living has exploded you know the cost of housing inflation um rental rates and we also don't have enough housing units for the people that live here in New Mexico and that issue is particularly acute for our seniors who are on fixed incomes and it's also very acute in our rural areas because there hasn't been an investment in housing stock there and I believe that housing is a basic human right and we have to treat it like infrastructure we treat water pipelines and broadband and electricity is infrastructure housing is also infrastructure and so in my office we've worked on housing literally every single day um we're working on legislation to help bring a massive investment in affordable housing to our state we're working with various counties and localities to address housing and homelessness and we've delivered back millions of dollars in funding for homeless programs here including our City's very first youth homeless shelter we help to build a new veterans housing campus here in Albuquerque and we're investing in a bunch of programs that help support families as they're getting back up on their feet but we have to do this work because it's critical to the well-being of our families can you give me just quickly a detail about that massive investment in housing here yeah so um we have legislation in front of Congress that unfortunately we have not been able to pass because uh my colleagues across the aisle have been incapable of governing this Congress uh I think is the best way to put it um and that legislation is led by ranking members Maxine Waters who's worked on housing and homeless issues for many many years and it would be the largest single investment in affordable housing ever made in the history of the United States uh we tried to pass it last uh Congress as part of the inflation reduction act but it was unfortunately part of that social infrastructure package that didn't make it across the finish line so housing is going to be one of our top priorities in the next Congress moving from housing insecurity to food insecurity my colleague lisio recently reported on a Statewide survey showing that 15% of college students had experienced homelessness in the last year but nearly 40% of the college uh undergraduates who responded to this thing said at times they didn't have enough money to pay for food these are college students our best and brightest and they're vulnerable in this way how do we get college aged students educated and building an economy when we can't can't meet our residents basic needs yeah I mean New Mexico has one of the highest rates of uh both childhood and adult food insecurity and it's an issue that I've been very passionate about and working on since my time in this state legislature in fact I helped to pass the first food and hunger bill in uh the state legislature which is part of a investment package that's being led by the state I passed one of the first uh Universal childhood hunger bills in the state legislature and I'm leading on that legislation in Congress as well but the reality is that food insecurity is tied to income in security and New Mexico is a place where so many of our people are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their head and so addressing income insecurity is a combination of things it means we have to address the affordability of housing food and all those issues it means for people who are struggling to make sure that they get access to income supports one of the biggest things we did last Congress was to pass the um child tax credit we have to make that permanent we know that millions and millions of American families and students uh especially students with kids use the child tax credit to help pay for rent uh and to pay for food and to make sure their kids have clothes when they go to school so all of those things are part and parcel and also to really support the programs around food and security right now we're trying to get a Farm Bill reauthorized in Congress my colleagues are blocking that bill right now and uh and they want to cut basic programs that would provide assistance to families for food as well as to our food banks and I've been leading the charge especially on funding for our food banks and again this is a very personal issue for me I know what food insecurity looks like I know what it looks like to not have food on the table to run out of money before the end of the month and I think for so many new Mexicans that's what we are dealing with and we've got to make sure that folks have access to those resources let me ask you an easier question and it's a yes or no do you think that immigration in all of its forms is a net positive or A negative for our country positive it was not yes or no I lied all right net positive uh abortion New Mexico's lack of restrictions on abortion are bringing folks from all over the country here to terminate their pregnancies are you in favor of any restrictions on abortion we need to restore Row versus Wade day one that's our agenda for the next Congress we've seen the devastating consequences of Donald Trump's Supreme Court and the do's decision and the leave it to the state's approach what that has resulted in is millions of American women without access to basic reproductive care and abortion care that means as you've pointed out that thousands of people from surrounding states are coming to New Mexico to get care what folks need to understand is abortion care care is yes abortion care but also reproductive care more generally that means you know access to health care when you're having uh the tragedy of a miscarriage or something that's gone wrong with your presidency or your pregnancy excuse me and these are not issues that the government should be involved in these are these are life or death situations that women should have a fundamental right to make decisions about their own bodies about their health care about whether or not they make a decision regarding to have a family or not have a family this is a human rights issue and we have to pass the Women's Health protection act to restore Ro versus Wade and I do not support putting restrictions on abortion because it is a fundamental human right to make decisions and to Access healthcare last question and we have just one minute what is the single most important issue for you in this election what's the one thing you most want to do if voters send you back to Congress well it's hard to answer with one single thing but this election is about our democracy it's about making sure that Donald Trump never sets foot near the White House again and it's about ensuring that we protect our basic rights and that we can continue to deliver for New Mexicans and for all Americans and that's what I'm fighting for democracy protection of our fundamental rights and to continue to serve the communities that raised me love me and supported me so that I could be here and serve them back representative stany thank you so much for coming in and talking to us thank you so much