On Saturday, July 19th, 2025, gubernatorial candidate, Deb Haaland came to Lea County to talk to the members and visitors of the Democratic Party of Lea County about her campaign. Given that the community at large did not receive prior information about her appearance here in Hobbs, a good number of people did show up to see her. Deb gave a short speech regarding her background and her qualifications for governor (e.g. she was a child of two service members, one a Marine, the other the Navy, her time as a poor, single mother who needed to use Medicaid and SNAP, her Native American and Norwegian heritage, her transgender child, and her time as a Congresswoman and then as the United States Secretary of the Interior).
Deb then answered questions from the audience. It was obvious that Deb does not yet have a cohesive plan for the future, but since the election in more than a year away, that is expected.
There were a few things that occurred during her speech that those from Lea County Pride might find interesting.
- Deb, as a mother of a trans child, is very pro-LGBTQ+ and will do all in her power to keep LGBTQ people in New Mexico safe and protect our rights to fair and equitable treatment in all facets of our lives.
- Deb also expressed interest in talking to Lea County Pride via Zoom to discuss our needs and concerns with her.
- Clayburn Griffin, the Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Lea County and a member of Lea County Pride, noticed that somewhere between a third and a half of the people who attended Deb’s talk were members of Lea County Pride. In fact, it seems that a majority of active members of the DPLC are of the LGBTQ+ community. How cool is that?!
If you are interested in learning more about Deb’s run for governor of New Mexico for the Democratic Party, check out her website here.
Finally, here are a couple of pictures of Lea County Pride members taken with Deb at the event.
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