Prominent Democratic U.S. Senators are blasting out their support for Martin Heinrich after the entry of former Governor Gary Johnson shook up the U.S. Senate race.
Johnson made his first public comments Thursday.
On Friday, Elizabeth Warren,Kirsten Gillibrand and others tweeted support for incumbent Martin Heinrich—and criticisms of Johnson.
Warren, a progressive Democrat from Massachusetts though to be considering a run for president in 2020, tweeted, “Gary Johnson – who’s supported abolishing the minimum wage, raising the Social Security retirement age, & gutting health care – jumped into the New Mexico Senate race against my friend Martin Heinrich.”
Johnson responded in a tweet that Warren was “pretty off-base on my positions.”
Gillibrand, another Senator who may run for president in 2020, wrote in a tweet thread that Heinrich “has been a champion in our fights for better health care, better education opportunities and better jobs. We can’t afford to lose his voice right now and let Gary Johnson take New Mexico backward at the expense of working families, so we need to rush Martin our support.”
Both included fundraising links for Heinrich’s campaign.
Heinrich also enlisted Maine U.S. Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, in a video on Twitter. King said he wouldn’t tell New Mexicans how to vote, but praised the first-term Democrat from New Mexico.
King said that Heinrich is “a son-of-a-bitch when it comes to advocating for the state of New Mexico.”
Ignored in all of this? Republican candidate Mick Rich. If Democrats see a challenge to Heinrich this November, it comes from the Libertarian Party, not the Republican Party.
Rich, meanwhile, on Friday touted an increase in manufacturing jobs under President Donald Trump.
