OPINION: An Indigenous and Youth Wave Could Make RFK Jr. a Real Contender in New Mexico

June 13, 2024

Albuquerque Journal reports:

Every so often, I’d glad I usually answer my work phone. Allowing calls to go to voicemail can be tempting when you’re on deadline or under fire, but there’s no substitute for live engagement and raw aggression.

It paid off last week, when a single call broadened my understanding of the complexities of New Mexico elections after 12 years of covering politics in the state.

The caller, a Pueblo lady in her 90s, reached out to inquire about a June 6 letter to the editor, “RFK Jr. signature drive is underway in NM.”

The lady, who said she was homebound 24/7 caring for her terminally ill husband, said she had fond memories of the Kennedy family. She didn’t mention Donald Trump or Joe Biden or anyone else. Instead, she talked about the shock of JFK’s assassination in 1963, the heartbreak at RFK’s assassination during the 1968 Democratic presidential primary, and the connection between the Kennedys and New Mexico’s pueblo and Indigenous communities dating back 64 years.

I had never heard of that connection before.

I gave her the number of the woman collecting signatures to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on New Mexico’s Nov. 5 presidential ballots, and the caller thanked me for being a “kind young man.” I’ll gladly take that at 58.

The 15- to 20-minute conversation was an epiphany and made me start thinking about how RFK Jr. would fare in New Mexico, especially with a potential Indigenous wave.

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