By Leah Romero, Source New Mexico

Economic development and water sustainability are at the forefront of New Mexico’s House District 34 race, which represents the southern portions of Doña Ana County.

The district includes multiple colonias, or rural communities, near the state’s borders with Texas and Mexico. Recent hot topics include access to quality drinking water following repeated arsenic level violations by the local water utility, and the progress of the controversial Project Jupiter data center.

Rep. Raymundo Lara (D-Chamberino) has represented the district since 2018 and is running for reelection. Democratic challenger Juan Fuentes brings his career-long experience with local governments to the table. The winner of the primary race does not have a major party competitor in the November general election. Minor party, independent and write-in candidates could still emerge.

Source NM posed several questions to both candidates about their races. Their answers have been edited for clarity and concision.

Juan Fuentes

Juan Fuentes, 52, is a lifelong resident of the Sunland Park/Santa Teresa area with nearly 30 years of experience working with local governments. He started his career as an environmental activist in the 1990s and went on to work with local governments, including Sunland Park, Mesilla, Truth or Consequences and Roswell. He retired as director of administrative services for the City of Roswell in 2023 and transitioned to consulting work.

“I’m familiar with a wide range of issues that affect communities, small and large. It’s just a matter of scale,” Fuentes told Source NM. “Challenges remain the same…It’s been two years and I figure I can still get involved.”

What is the most important issue facing HD34?

I think the most important issue facing the district has to be our economy. We live in a tri-state area and that whole area is just growing tremendously, so we must ensure we have the infrastructure and the economic opportunities to be competitive, to be able to attract businesses to the area. El Paso’s west side is growing tremendously and there’s a lot of businesses going over there. Unfortunately, you don’t see that coming over to New Mexico, you don’t see the jobs. 

What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?

I think the most important issue facing New Mexico is affordability throughout the state. I think the rising cost of healthcare, the rising cost of fuel prices and inflation on everyday essentials and stagnant wages that are not keeping up with all those increases is really placing a significant financial burden on the families and everyone across the state. Unfortunately, families have to start prioritizing their purchases. Businesses have to raise their prices to offset the higher cost of operating their business. And even the state will be facing paying more for capital outlet projects because of fuel, because of labor and the supplies.

If elected, what is the first bill you would introduce?

I would like to work with the governor’s office and the legislative leadership to introduce a bill that would provide some financial relief, whether it’s through a form of a rebate, or whether it’s a reduction in the state income tax. 


What is your top choice for committee service?

My top choice would be Appropriations and Finance. Throughout my career in local government, I have developed and managed budgets and balanced infrastructure, public services, the workforce, dealing with employees to be able to address community needs. While I recognize the large scale and the complexity of state budgets, I believe that I can contribute from a local level perspective to be able to contribute my experience and my understanding of public finances.

What is your strongest skill that makes you the best candidate for the race?

My strongest skill is my ability to deliver practical results and provide solutions from real experience in public management. We talked about my 27 years of experience with local governments serving communities that have provided services from A to Z, literally from airports to zoo. I’ve worked on real problems at the local level. 

Do you support paying state legislators?

I am in favor of paying legislative lawmakers for two reasons. The first is for opportunity. Compensation allows more people to serve their communities. But more importantly, it provides an opportunity to advance maybe additional reforms, such as maybe allowing voters to vote on another question to set term limits. 

And the second is accountability. This last session it was the compensation for legislators. In the last 60-day session, the Legislature also appropriated money to pay for legislative aides. So when you combine the legislative aids and the legislative pay, if approved by the voters, we’re looking at a little bit over $10 million of annual recurring combined. I believe this gives voters a stronger voice in holding legislators accountable to act on reforms that deliver results to address the issues of the state. 

Raymundo Lara

Raymundo Lara, 55, has lived in the Chamberino area for over 30 years and has family roots in the La Union area where he grew up. He moved to the agricultural community from El Paso as a child. He has worked in the Gadsden Independent School District for over 25 years, currently as coordinator for instructional resources. Lara was first elected to represent HD34 in 2018 and is seeking reelection for a fifth term.

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done or finished…I strongly believe that quality of life is really important in my communities, so I have a couple of projects going on right now,” Lara told Source NM. “I’d really like to see those projects to the end.”

What is the most important issue facing HD34?

The biggest one that we have, especially when it comes to our agriculture, is the water. And the Texas v. New Mexico agreement in the amount of water that our farmers are going to be able to use to water their crops. Many of our farmers that are farming families that have lived in this valley for generations are going to have to make some really tough choices. 

What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?

Once again, the water situation. The water situation is really going to impact us as a state as well, because we’re having to tighten our belts here in the lower Rio Grande, and it’s like a reverse domino effect. It’s impacting us around the lower Rio Grande, it’s definitely going to affect the middle Rio Grande and up to the north with the acequias. 

Being an educator, the other to me is obviously some education issues, referring to Martinez/Yazzie [a longstanding equity education lawsuit]. But also one of the biggest issues that we have as a state is the issues that we have with health care providers and the lack of health care providers for our residents.  

If reelected, what is the first bill you would introduce?

I had a bill that I introduced during the 30-day session, and this is kind of out of my wheelhouse, but I thought it was important and it’s a human trafficking bill. 
This bill would require establishments that have 10 rooms or more to post a notice by the registration desks notifying the people that are there if there’s anything having to do with human trafficking or bringing awareness to it. Besides the notice, the employees of the establishment would also have to go through a training to try to identify potential human trafficking. 

What is your top choice for committee service?

I’m happy with the ones that I’m on right now. I’m on House Education, I’ve been on there since I started my legislative work. I kind of convinced Speaker [Javier] Martínez to place me on Transportation and Infrastructure because that committee’s really, really important, especially when it comes down to my area — the Santa Teresa International Border Crossing. 

What is your strongest skill that makes you the best candidate for the race?

I approach things in a very practical manner. I’m very solutions driven. I believe that bringing people to the table as the stakeholders that need to be at the table should be at the table, even though sometimes they may be left out or even I may be left out of some of those conversations. But I think the biggest strength that I bring to this is that relationship building. 

Do you support paying state legislators?

Yes, absolutely. When I first decided to run for office, I asked other legislators from the area at that time for advice and one of them told me something that has stuck with me. She told me, ‘If you want to be a part of this you have to be one of the three Rs.’ 
She goes, ‘You have to be rich, retired, or resourceful.’ And I told her, ‘Well, I’m neither rich nor retired, so I guess I’m resourceful if I want to do this.’ That, I believe, limits who can participate. So I fully support paying the Legislature because it gives everyday, regular New Mexicans the opportunity to become lawmakers.

Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.