Could saving our nation’s natural heritage be the issue that unites a divided country? It looks that way, at leastin New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District,where a pro-public-lands Democrat achieved a narrowupset over a pro-Trump, anti-monument Republican.
Xochitl Torres Small, a 33-year-old attorney and first-time Congressional candidate, just in a massive regionthat’s 99.6 percent rural and about 60 times the size of Rhode Island. She’ll be the first woman ever and only the third Democrat in the last half centuryto represent the district. (Her win also makes .)
To be fair, Torres Small mostly campaigned on keyissues such asimmigration, health care, and education. But she's also been consistently vocal about protecting the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, a 776-square-mile preserve made up ofwild, rugged mountains that's located in her district. Designated by President Barack Obama in 2014, the monument is popular with locals, but was nevertheless the target of efforts by President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to shrinkseveral national monuments last year.
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“The community invested over a decade to carefully study, document, and negotiate protection of these Wild West lands,” Torres Small inJune. “The result is a stunning national monument that receives overwhelming local support and attracts national and international acclaim, and the accompanying tourism dollars that come with that. Please, don't interfere with our hard-earned source of local pride. Let us keep our Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.”
Her Republican opponent, Yvette Herrell, for the Koch-backed , a nonprofitthat has aggressively sought to privatize public lands.
Torres Small is just one success story in a broader wave of candidates who have embraced protecting our public lands as part of their campaign platforms. With the nascent success of conservation as a national issue that can turn out votersand swing campaigns, Ihopeto see more politicians from both parties jumping on the public lands bandwagon in 2020 and beyond.