Candidate Q&A: Martin Heinrich, U.S. Senate candidate

Editor’s note: This week, NM Political Report will publish Q&As with candidates for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor about their policy platforms regarding a range of topics, including abortion, contraception, LGBTQ issues and domestic violence. For links to all of our stories, see here.  The following is from a Q&A with Martin Heinrich, the Democratic […]

Candidate Q&A: Martin Heinrich, U.S. Senate candidate

Editor’s note: This week, NM Political Report will publish Q&As with candidates for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor about their policy platforms regarding a range of topics, including abortion, contraception, LGBTQ issues and domestic violence.

For links to all of our stories, see here

The following is from a Q&A with Martin Heinrich, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate and incumbent.

NMPR: If re-elected, how will your beliefs about the separation between government and religion guide your work in the U.S. Senate?

Martin Heinrich: I think what you can expect is for my votes and positions that I take in the Senate to be very consistent with the way I’ve voted in the past. I think I’ve got a good body of evidence over time that says I respect people to make their own decisions in their personal lives, and that it’s not the role of government to become intricately involved in those decisions. People should be guided by their own moral compass, their own religious beliefs and their own best interests.

NMPR: Is healthcare a human right? Why or why not?

Martin Heinrich: I believe it is a human right, because if you don’t have access to healthcare, it really is one of those issues that divides the haves and the have-nots in this country in a way that I think is very dangerous for our long-term democracy. More and more people are recognizing that access to healthcare is absolutely critical for a well-functioning democracy.

NMPR: If elected, describe measures you would take, if any, to ensure contraception is easily accessible to anyone who needs it?

Martin Heinrich: Both with regard to legislation and the appropriations process, anything that we can do to make sure that contraception is widely available supports people’s ability to take control of their own lives and their own family’s decisions. I think that’s absolutely critical.

Access to birth control should be one of those fundamental rights to be able to manage one’s own decisions about how and when to create a family. When people have that ability, they make better choices, and they have healthier families over the long-term. … Trying to build a stronger, more resilient country really rests on people making good decisions about family planning. Without access to birth control, we just can’t have that. … If you look at countries where birth control is widely available, they have higher standards of living, higher rates of education, lower rates of violence. It’s absolutely critical.

NMPR: What measures would you take, if any, to ensure that abortion is legal, safe and accessible?

Martin Heinrich: I think the most important measure with respect to the time we’re in right now is to continue to support judges and justices that recognize that Roe v. Wade is settled law.

NMPR: Please describe how an LGBTQ person in your life has affected your worldview.

Martin Heinrich: When I got to college—I came from a very culturally conservative, rural small town where issues of sexual identity were not openly discussed—and there were a number of people in college that opened my eyes to sexual identity, how it impacts people and what it means, and it was really transformational for me in many ways.

In particular, there was an LGBTQ [resident assistant] of the dormitory at the university where I went, and he was really great about engaging people where they were. Just having the conversation and creating the space to grow into a more complex worldview of what equality really means and … dealing with one’s own personal prejudices, or the prejudices which you pick up because you’re surrounded by them all the time. This particular employee that I knew in one of the dorms not only gave me the room to dramatically re-evaluate any biases that I might have, but I saw how … people would come in as freshman, and how he really made them think about how they related to people as a whole, not just LGBTQ people, but he really gave the mental tools for people to look at how they engaged with other people broadly. I saw how those people grew over time, including many friends of mine. That was very instructive.

NMPR: What are your priorities when it comes to addressing needs and concerns of LGBTQ people, including those in rural and tribal communities?

Martin Heinrich: One of the biggest issues we have right now is standing up to an administration that wants to take us back in time and is very comfortable with structural bias. Given all the advances we have secured in the last 10 years—especially in my position on the [Senate] Armed Services Committee, having seen the incredible forward strides the Department of Defense has made—we need to defend those and look for ways to increase that, not allow us to be pulled back in time and to have communities divided from one another. If there’s one thing his administration is incredibly good at doing, and it is so destructive to our country and to our democracy, it’s driving wedges between different communities that are part of the American family.

NMPR: What is your stance regarding proposals to enact federal work requirements for SNAP, subsidized housing and other public assistance programs?

Martin Heinrich: There are existing work requirements, and we need to be focused on how to solve the structural problems that keep people poor. We need to be looking for ways to expose people to educational opportunities, to give them support, to get them the job training they need. I think that [work requirements are] a solution largely in search of a problem, and we need to be focused on what the structural problems are, and how to address income inequality and other structural issues that are keeping people in poverty.

One of the things that I’ve really tried to focus on quite a bit is that historically, government has tried to solve income inequality and poverty issues in a very siloed way, and one of the things we’ve learned in the last 30 years from the private sector and from the non-profit space is that when you break down those silos and treat families as a whole, generationally, you can have much stronger outcomes than if you just have a program from a mother or a program for a father, separate from childcare for their kids, separate for nutritional assistance. You really have to create a wraparound approach that is multi-generational.

I’ve introduced legislation with [Republican] Senator Susan Collins of Maine—who also has a number of these challenges endemic in her communities, with a different cultural component but very much the same multi-generational poverty issues—and we have introduced legislation to get the government to take a step back, coordinate these things, and then take a multi-generational approach to breaking down poverty, instead of allowing these silos to continue to exist.

NMPR: What is your stance regarding the Republican tax bill that includes major cuts to food assistance and a provision to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, a key part of the ACA, that will go into effect with the tax bill next year?

Martin Heinrich: The tax bill is an absolute disaster for the solvency of the federal government. It’s also a disaster in that the benefits are so concentrated in the wealthiest individuals and among corporations. It’s not a tax bill that was designed to help working families.

I think what we’re already seeing with respect to this tax bill is that it has done very little to help the average family, wages are not going up as they were promised to, and we’re already seeing Republicans call for cuts to Social Security, to Medicare and to Medicaid. Their logic is, “Well, we have a budget deficit,” which they exacerbated, and now we have to fix it by taking away the safety net from working families. That, to me, is a very cynical approach to all of this. This tax bill has been an absolute disaster for working families.

Because of schedule constraints, Senator Martin Heinrich was unable to answer all the questions posed to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Republican candidate Mick Rich said his schedule was full and did not participate.

All of this week’s candidate Q&A’s were edited for clarity and length, although we did not edit the meaning of candidates’ answers. We did not include, however, tangents or off-topic issues candidates raised during the course of the conversations. It’s also important to note that the candidate’s answers aren’t annotated and we don’t point out any possible inaccuracies or misstatements.   

We're ad free

That means that we rely on support from readers like you. Help us keep reporting on the most important New Mexico Stories by donating today.

Related

How Native families are particularly impacted by food insecurity

How Native families are particularly impacted by food insecurity

One in five children in New Mexico and one in seven people in the state experience food insecurity, according to a report presented to…
New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

With 8,800 nurse positions posted for hiring in New Mexico, hospital leadership told the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday that access…
WNMU: Grow your own rural healthcare providers pipeline 

WNMU: Grow your own rural healthcare providers pipeline 

Western New Mexico University wants to create a pipeline of programs with a rural healthcare focus to try to address the medical provider shortage…
Air Force extends comment period on low-altitude flights in the Gila area

Air Force extends comment period on low-altitude flights in the Gila area

Following requests from members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, the U.S. Air Force has extended the comment period on a proposal to increase low-altitude…
PRC raises community solar cap by 300 megawatts

PRC raises community solar cap by 300 megawatts

State regulators are increasing the amount of community solar that can come online in New Mexico. During its Thursday meeting, the New Mexico Public…
NM regulators look into how the electric grid may impact economic development

NM regulators look into how the electric grid may impact economic development

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission opened an inquiry this week into grid readiness. This inquiry focuses on whether the electric grid can handle…
Early childhood summit convened to discuss future of program

Early childhood summit convened to discuss future of program

About 200 people from tribal governors to legislators to advocates and teachers gathered at Bishop’s Lodge to discuss Early Childhood Education’s future in New…
Stansbury outlines funding secured for early childhood and youth services programs

Stansbury outlines funding secured for early childhood and youth services programs

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury secured $8.3 million for childhood development and youth services in the 1st congressional district through federal community project funding. Stansbury,…
Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican The main things that bring Brayan Chavez to school every day: Seeing, talking to and engaging with…
Heinrich introduces legislation to address affordable housing

Heinrich introduces legislation to address affordable housing

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, introduced legislation in the Senate on Monday that would provide tax credits to incentivize new investments and additional…
New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

With 8,800 nurse positions posted for hiring in New Mexico, hospital leadership told the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday that access…
As rhetoric around undocumented workers heats up, new report shows their tax contribution

As rhetoric around undocumented workers heats up, new report shows their tax contribution

A nonprofit group released data showing how much taxes migrants pay in the U.S. as rhetoric on immigration grows more prominent just months from…
Heinrich helps introduce resolution in response to death of Amber Nicole Thurman

Heinrich helps introduce resolution in response to death of Amber Nicole Thurman

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich helped to introduce a resolution on Tuesday in the Senate that every patient has the basic right to emergency health…
Project 2025: How a consolidation of federal power could ban abortion

Project 2025: How a consolidation of federal power could ban abortion

If Project 2025 becomes federal policy next year, it would upend abortion rights and reproductive healthcare through a reshaping of and consolidation of power…
New abortion clinic in Las Cruces expected to provide more abortion training

New abortion clinic in Las Cruces expected to provide more abortion training

One of the consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is the lack of abortion care training for medical residents training to become…
New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

New Mexico in critical nursing shortage

With 8,800 nurse positions posted for hiring in New Mexico, hospital leadership told the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday that access…
Heinrich helps introduce resolution in response to death of Amber Nicole Thurman

Heinrich helps introduce resolution in response to death of Amber Nicole Thurman

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich helped to introduce a resolution on Tuesday in the Senate that every patient has the basic right to emergency health…
WNMU: Grow your own rural healthcare providers pipeline 

WNMU: Grow your own rural healthcare providers pipeline 

Western New Mexico University wants to create a pipeline of programs with a rural healthcare focus to try to address the medical provider shortage…
Oil-and-gas giant gives big to dark money group

Oil-and-gas giant gives big to dark money group

By Trip Jennings, New Mexico In Depth Chevron Corporation gave the single largest contribution to a dark money group that attempted but failed to…
Survey shows candidates are for legislative reform, unsure about ranked choice voting

Survey shows candidates are for legislative reform, unsure about ranked choice voting

A survey by four nonprofit organizations showed that candidates for state and federal office support pro-democracy and government reform, according to those groups. Common…
Project 2025 takes aim at elections: ‘Sowing the seeds of doubt’

Project 2025 takes aim at elections: ‘Sowing the seeds of doubt’

Project 2025, a political agenda by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, seeks to empower the next conservative president towards what appears to be…
Torrez announces legislation priorities to protect victims of sexual assault

Torrez announces legislation priorities to protect victims of sexual assault

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez unveiled two legislative priorities to expand crime victim protections on Friday. Torrez held a press conference in Albuquerque…
PRC raises community solar cap by 300 megawatts

PRC raises community solar cap by 300 megawatts

State regulators are increasing the amount of community solar that can come online in New Mexico. During its Thursday meeting, the New Mexico Public…
Backlash continues over proposed low-altitude military flights in the Gila region

Backlash continues over proposed low-altitude military flights in the Gila region

A proposal that would lead to lower altitude military training flights over the Gila National Forest, including the wilderness area, has led to backlash…

GET INVOLVED

© 2023 New Mexico Political Report