An open seat in southern New Mexico attracts two Democratic newcomers with an eye on the economy

Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Two first-time political candidates, nonprofit leader Lori Martinez and lawyer Matilda “Tilli” Villalobos, will compete June 2 in a Democratic primary for southern New Mexico House District 37 after five-term incumbent Joanne Ferrary declined to seek reelection.

The Las Cruces-area district straddles Interstate 25 and includes large swathes of northeastern single-family residential areas, including the wealthy Sonoma Ranch, as well as a significant restaurant and commercial district on Telshor Drive, which hosts several shopping malls. It’s removed from the city’s downtown, university or agricultural and manufacturing districts.

Both candidates say the top issues in the area include the impacts of rising inflation and costs, as well as ripple effects in immigration and health care from the Trump administration.

The winner will face Republican Isabella Solis in the Nov. 3 election. Solis is a one-time Democratic Doña Ana County commissioner who changed her party affiliation in 2019 and has run several failed bids for Las Cruces mayor.

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

Lori Martinez

Lori Martinez, 45, grew up outside of Farmington. She moved to Las Cruces in 1998 to attend New Mexico State University and stayed.

Martinez previously worked in early childhood education and was employed as a social worker and counselor at New Mexico State University. For the past nine years, she’s served as the director of Las Cruces education nonprofit Ngage New Mexico, part of the coalition that lobbied for paid family medical leave. Outgoing lawmaker Ferrary has endorsed her campaign.

“I want to serve my community,” Martinez said. “New Mexico is in a unique position to pass important legislation in the next few years, and I want to be part of that. Our state Legislature is one of the tools we have to protect our people from what’s happening at the federal level.”

What is the most important issue facing HD 37?

Affordability right now is huge and on a lot of people’s minds. Increased inflation, just the unpredictability of our world in recent years. Most people are just one paycheck away, really, from something bad potentially happening to them.

The best of New Mexico’s resources should be going to the state’s people and taking care of the land. We should
really invest in our small businesses; they are the ones living in our communities, more so than corporations who we don’t know if they’re going to fulfill the economic development promises they make when they come here.

What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?

Health care, it’s a huge issue in our country. People have to worry not only how they’re going to pay for their care, but also access to providers. In southern New Mexico, especially if you need a specialist, there are some here, but often your option is to go to El Paso or to Albuquerque.

New Mexico just became the first country in the nation to pass free universal child care. Our speaker of the House and others have talked about launching a universal health care system. For New Mexico to really be looking at a single-payer health care system, it would be life-changing for so many people here.

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

Two years ago we came really, really close in our state Legislature to passing paid family medical leave. I really want to see that get across the finish line.

What is your top choice for committee service?

House Education Committee. My career as a social worker has largely existed at the intersection of education and mental health, and it’s one of the places I can be most effective.

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

I know systems. I’ve had to really pick them apart so clients and families that I was serving can help navigate them. When you learn how systems work, you can start to ask ‘why’ and ‘is there a better way for this?’

In most of the jobs I’ve been in, I was the squeaky wheel pushing for changes, because very often our systems are not user-friendly, they’re not built to talk to others, and at the end of the day, it’s people who pay for that.

Do you support paying state lawmakers?

We’re the only state left that doesn’t, as New Mexico is the last volunteer Legislature in the country. If you don’t pay your legislators, then there’s only certain people who can afford to run for office, and it’s not most people.

Matilda “Tilli” Villalobos

Matilda “Tilli” Villalobos, 35, has lived in Las Cruces since 2017 after growing up in California and Utah. A lawyer, Villalobos served as a prosecutor in Denton County and El Paso, Texas and later became a federal prosecutor in Las Cruces in 2018, specializing in sexual assault and civil rights cases.

Villalobos resigned after President Donald Trump assumed office in 2025. “I felt like the administration wanted us to do things that were not legal,” she told Source NM. Villalobos now operates her own private practice where she said the bulk of her work involves defending people charged with civil immigration violations.

“What I’ve been doing my entire career and standing up and fighting for people when it matters most, and that’s what I’m going to do in the Legislature,” Villalobos said. “It’s what New Mexicans need.”

What is the most important issue facing HD 37?

Our constituents need good, long-term, stable jobs. They need jobs that pay them enough to earn a living wage where they can afford stable housing, to afford their health care.

What is the most important issue facing New Mexico?

We are looking at a climate crisis. We’re looking at a state where people are struggling to get those long-term stable jobs. We have an education system that is consistently ranked last and a lot of New Mexicans don’t feel safe in their communities.

I think it’s hard to say for each person what their biggest concern is, but all of those things together are the biggest challenges that New Mexicans face.

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

One of my major priorities is working with our labor unions to create apprenticeship programs in our schools to help build pathways for students to go from high school into the trades… that’s important, especially here in southern New Mexico, where we have not had as much of a labor union presence in the past.

What is your top choice for committee service?

A priority for me is being on House Judiciary. It’s important to have attorneys on the committee, but as a former prosecutor who specialized in prosecuting both sexual abuse cases and civil rights violations, that gives me a very unique and important background.

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

When people have experienced trauma, sexual abuse or had their civil rights violated by law enforcement, I have been the person in court fighting for them every step of the way. When I saw the [U.S.] Department of Justice doing things that I believed were not right, I left. I’m now using my skills to fight back against policies that I think are rooted in racism and hate over actual public safety. Also, I was a teen mom. I had my son when I was 17 years old. It was a very scary time for me. We often did not know how we were going to put food on the table, how we were going to get by, so I understand the challenges that so many New Mexicans face.

Do you support paying state lawmakers?

I’m in favor. Having paid legislators will mean that the people in our government are more representative of normal New Mexicans.

Danielle Prokop covers the environment and local government for Source New Mexico.