When the longtime state representative serving her district in north-central New Mexico retired in early 2020, science educator Anita Gonzales wondered who would replace him. Then she asked herself, “Why not me?”
Although she’d occasionally visited the state Capitol in Santa Fe to lobby for issues that mattered to STEM students and teachers, Gonzales didn’t feel as though she had the background for politics, especially as the working mother of a then-8-year-old son. But the Democratic caucus in the legislature was changing—recruiting more women and people from the working class. “I could see a possibility of me serving,” Gonzales recalls, “because there were people who looked like me.”
That first race was a heartbreaker. Gonzales didn’t know the logistics of running a campaign—how to find a campaign manager or increase her name recognition—and lost her primary to a local rancher by a mere 62 votes…