Teresa Leger Fernandez

Her campaign website says everyone should have access to affordable, good-quality health care close to home, which it calls a basic right, and lists among her accomplishments voting to bring down health insurance premiums and costs. It says health care for all means access for all, without unaffordable deductibles and copays or surprise bills.⁷

Her campaign website says she voted to put a ceiling on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs and to give Medicare power to negotiate prices with drug companies. Its seniors page says she will keep holding drug companies accountable for the prices they set.^7,8

Her campaign website says Social Security and Medicare benefits should be protected and expanded, and that she is a cosponsor of legislation to increase Social Security benefits and the cost-of-living adjustment and to improve the program’s solvency.⁸

1. Increase benefits, for example with larger yearly cost-of-living raises
2. Keep the current benefit formula
3. Slow benefit growth for higher earners or future retirees

Her campaign website says she supports reproductive freedom, and that decisions about pregnancy, bodies, families and futures are personal and must be protected and free from government interference. It also says women covered through Medicaid must be able to exercise these rights.^7,9

Her campaign website says she co-sponsored and voted for federal legislation to codify Roe v. Wade, and that reproductive freedom must be protected for every American.⁷

1. A national law making abortion legal in every state, at least until viability, as under Roe v. Wade
2. Leave abortion law to each state
3. A national law limiting abortion (for example, after 15 weeks of pregnancy)

Her campaign website says contraception must be available and affordable, and that Planned Parenthood and community health centers should receive support and full funding so that people can get contraception and routine breast and cervical cancer screenings.^7,9

Her campaign website says the country must build broadband, and that a $65 billion broadband investment will soon reach every rural part of her district. It lists helping pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law among her accomplishments.^10,11

Her campaign website says she supports raising the federal minimum wage.¹⁰

Her campaign website says she supports protecting workers’ right to bargain collectively.¹⁰

Her campaign website says she works to support small businesses by cutting red tape and creating access to capital, and lists helping pass the American Rescue Plan among her accomplishments, saying it gave small businesses, venues and restaurants in New Mexico emergency support such as forgivable loans and tax credits.¹⁰

Her campaign website says paid family leave needs to be enacted, so people can take time away from work when they have a child, get sick or have a family member deployed in the military.¹⁰

1. Create a national paid leave program for all workers
2. Expand tax credits for employers that offer paid leave, without a national requirement
3. Keep current federal law, leaving paid leave to employers and states

Her campaign website says families need affordable, quality child care, and that all of New Mexico’s children should have access to it.¹⁰

Her campaign website’s COVID-19 page, written while she was working to pass the Biden Rescue and Recovery plan, lists child tax credits among the plan’s key economic measures.¹²

Her campaign website says she supports tax incentives for local businesses rather than aid to large out-of-state corporations.¹⁰

Her campaign website says she supports reducing student debt, which it says holds back many young people and the economy.¹³

Her campaign website says she supports ending undergraduate tuition for most students at public colleges and universities.¹³

1. No free tuition program
2. Free tuition at community colleges
3. Free tuition at public colleges and universities

Her campaign website’s About page says she wants public lands kept unspoiled and protected for future generations.⁴

Her campaign website lists among her accomplishments securing $3.95 billion to compensate victims of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire through the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act, and obtaining investigations into U.S. Forest Service policies on controlled burns. It says she is working with the Forest Service to update those policies.¹⁴

Her campaign website says she supports background checks on all gun sales.¹⁵

1. Require checks for all gun sales, including private sales (with exceptions such as gifts between family members)
2. Require checks for private sales at gun shows and online, but not other private sales
3. Keep current law, with checks required only for sales by licensed dealers

Her campaign website says she supports banning what it calls military-style assault weapons.¹⁵

1. Ban the sale of these rifles
2. Keep sales legal, with added limits such as a minimum buying age of 21
3. No bans or added limits on these rifles

Her campaign website says she supports strengthening red flag laws to keep guns away from people who may harm themselves or others.¹⁵

1. Adopt more red flag laws, including a national one
2. Leave the choice to each state
3. Repeal existing red flag laws and adopt no new ones

Her campaign website says she has worked on legislation to end partisan gerrymandering, and that she has defended Native American and Hispanic voters against gerrymandering.¹⁶

Her campaign website says she has worked on legislation requiring political groups funded in secret to disclose their donors, and that she will keep fighting to overturn Citizens United and promote public financing of campaigns.^16,17

1. Limit spending by outside groups, including by amending the Constitution to overturn Citizens United
2. Keep spending unlimited but require groups to name their major donors
3. Keep current rules
4. Raise or remove limits on donations to candidates and parties

Her campaign website says she supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented Dreamers and other immigrants who follow the law, and that keeps families together.¹⁸

1. No new legal status, including for people brought here as children
2. Legal status only for people brought here as children, such as DACA recipients
3. Legal status, but not citizenship, for most who pass background checks and pay a fine
4. A path to citizenship for most who meet requirements such as background checks

Her campaign website’s COVID-19 page, written while she was working to pass the Biden Rescue and Recovery plan, says COVID relief should reach all Americans, including immigrants, whom it calls essential workers.¹²

Her campaign website says she works to make sure the federal government meets its duty to protect the sovereign authority and jurisdiction of Native American tribes over their lands and resources, along with their right to govern themselves, and to consult with tribes as one government to another.¹⁹