The Artesia Daily Press is letting you decide on the best local sports star each week. Go to ArtesiaNews.com and cast your ballot. You can also access the polling using the QR code.
Girls
Eighth-grader Ashlyn McIntire is powering the bowling team this season.
The Lady ’Dogs basketball team leader, Jenna Whitmire, has become the glue for the squad. The ever-hustling Ashton Craft continues to play superior defense.
Boys
Bulldogs center Clay Kincaid has played well for Artesia this season. Senior Tootie McNeil has helped spur the boys basketball team to the No. 1 ranking in 4A-4.
Bowling makes its second Athlete of the Week appearance with senior Payton DeMerritt.
Results will be released in the Jan. 22 print edition and online.
A southeast New Mexico lawmaker on Thursday, Jan. 15 became the latest Republican to launch a bid for lieutenant governor.
Sen. David Gallegos (R-41) of Eunice announced his campaign in an early morning Facebook post on Thursday. He said he is running to succeed term-limited Democratic Lt. Gov. Howie Morales because New Mexico needs “serious leadership.”
State Sen. David Gallegos
“New Mexico cannot afford more symbolic leadership. We need people in office who understand how to govern, how to work with a President Trump administration to secure our border and get the economy moving again, and how to build the coalitions necessary to actually get things done. The Lieutenant Governor cannot just give speeches — the Lieutenant Governor has to help run a state,” the post stated.
In New Mexico, the lieutenant governor serves as acting governor when needed, presides over the Senate when the Legislature is in session and is a member of eight state boards and committees.
In an interview with El Rito Media, Gallegos, 65, confirmed that he had filed the necessary campaign paperwork Monday with the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office. However, as of Thursday morning, his candidate campaign committee registration was still not posted on the Secretary of State’s website.
Gallegos said that on the campaign trail and as lieutenant governor, he would work to strengthen the state’s oil and gas industries, bring attention to rural New Mexico and advance a conservative policy agenda.
“In reality, we need someone that is steadfast and understands rural New Mexico and the southeast, and we’ll then do everything we can for the whole state,” he said.
Gallegos has represented portions of Eddy and Lea counties in the Senate since 2021. He sits on the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee, Senate Rules Committee and Senate Ethics Committee. As Senate Republican Caucus Chair, he holds the third highest-ranking Republican leadership position in that chamber.
He previously held the District 61 seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives, from 2013 to 2020, representing Lea County. That seat is currently held by Rep. Randall Pettigrew, a Republican. Gallegos has also been on the Eunice School Board since 1999.
Currently, Gallegos is a senior superintendent with Ramirez & Sons Inc., a Hobbs-based general contractor. From 1979 until 2010, Gallegos worked for the New Mexico Gas Company, where he began as a laborer and eventually rose to a supervisor position in Lea County. Gallegos also has a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of the Southwest in Hobbs.
With his announcement, Gallegos became the third Republican to enter the race to be his party’s nominee. Manuel Lardizabal of Albuquerque, who ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for the District 26 New Mexico Senate seat, filed paperwork last year for a campaign for lieutenant governor. Aubrey Blair Dunn, an Albuquerque attorney who was the Libertarian Party nominee for New Mexico attorney general in 2018, wrote in a Facebook post Monday that he is also running as a Republican for the position.
Three Democrats are also vying for their party’s nomination: New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Sen. Harold Pope (D-23) of Albuquerque and Jackie Onsurez, the mayor pro tem on the Loving village Council. New Mexico Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard also launched a campaign, but later withdrew due to her husband’s health.
Legislative Reporter Alex Ross can be followed on the social media platform X @alexrosstweets.
New Mexico Democratic lawmakers on Friday said affordability, healthcare, juvenile justice and banning immigrant detention will be top priorities in the upcoming legislative session.
Speaker Javier Martinez (D-11) of Albuquerque and other Democrats laid out their agenda Friday during a press conference outside the First Choice Community Health Care, South Valley Health Care Center in Albuquerque. The press conference came as lawmakers gear up for the 30-day legislative session that begins Tuesday.
“We will lead the way forward to ensure that we are making life affordable for our families, to build a safe community for all of our children to be able to thrive,” Martinez said.
In New Mexico, 30-day sessions are dedicated to the budget and matters the governor calls for the Legislature to take up.
The session comes as state economists last month projected a steep drop in the amount of new money — revenue coming into the state that is above spending levels for the current budget year — that the state is projected to receive. A report last month by the Legislative Finance Committee predicted the state will take in $105 million in new money, representing a $329 million downward revision from their August estimate.
House Majority Floor Leader Rena Szczepanski (D-47) of Santa Fe said that despite the slowing revenue growth, New Mexico enters the session as “the envy of many states.”
She said lawmakers backfilled health and food assistance programs during two special sessions this fall. That includes allocating $17.3 million to fully cover the cost of federal enhanced premium tax credits that expired at the end of the year, up through the current fiscal year that ends June 30.
“We were the only state to do that,” Szczepanski said. “We’re going to continue to do that as long as we can and as long as we have to.”
Szczepanski announced House Democrats will put forth a comprehensive healthcare agenda, which includes expansions of both the rural provider tax credit and the state’s Medical Student Loan Repayment Program and legislation to allow New Mexico to join the interstate medical licensure compacts. The compacts, she said, will expand options in telehealth and provide healthcare professionals licensed in other states with a more streamlined path to work in New Mexico.
Lawmakers will also make what Szczepanski called “targeted” changes to the state’s medical malpractice laws, and a bill will be introduced to protect the assets of physicians in medical malpractice cases.
Amid an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration and the use of controversial tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, Democrats also promised to reintroduce a bill that would prohibit New Mexico counties from entering into contracts with the federal government to detain people on alleged civil immigration violations.
In the last regular legislative session, such legislation, known as the Immigrant Safety Act, passed the New Mexico House but stalled in the Senate. Martinez said the bill will be reintroduced in the first days of the session.
“It’s going to be House Bill 9, and it’s going to move quickly,” he said.
House Majority Floor Whip Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-15) of Albuquerque said measures will also be introduced to ensure ICE agents can be identified and held accountable and prevent certain routine surveillance data from being used by ICE against immigrants.
Democrats said they also look forward to addressing crime and public safety by increasing oversight of firearms dealers, cracking down on weapons trafficking, continued investments in law enforcement and improving behavioral health services.
“When it comes to juvenile justice, we must address the core issues and not fall for the false promise of easy solutions,” Hochman-Vigil said.
Policies that will be considered, she said, will include measures to hold juveniles accountable but also more funding for programs that steer youth away from crime.
Other issues Democrats said they hope to take up include a bonding bill to repair roads across the state and a proposed constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would create a commission of experts to appoint the leadership of the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department.
Legislative reporter Alex Ross can be followed on X @alexrosstweets.
A Republican state lawmaker is planning to prefile several bills on juvenile crime she hopes will win the backing of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The proposals by Rep. Andrea Reeb (R-64) of Clovis include expanding the circumstances under which youths can be sentenced as adults and how long the state can have jurisdiction over young offenders.
Reeb told El Rito Media on Wednesday that two bills were prefiled and another four were introduced Friday, the deadline for filing legislation ahead of the 30-day legislative session, which begins Tuesday.
Under the New Mexico Constitution, 30-day legislative sessions focus on the state budget, and lawmakers may consider only bills supported by the governor. Reeb does not know whether her bills will get on the governor’s agenda, but said early indicators suggest Lujan Grisham will direct legislators to act on juvenile crime.
“So, I’m hoping that will open the door for mine to be discussed,” Reeb said.
On Thursday, Ben Baker, Lujan Grisham’s public safety advisor, told El Rito Media one of the governor’s top goals is reducing the youth recidivism rate, especially for individuals who commit crimes involving firearms. He said Lujan Grisham expects the issue will be debated by lawmakers in the session.
Reeb’s bills represent the latest push by the longtime prosecutor and former district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties to advance juvenile crime reforms through the Democratic-led Legislature.
Last year, Reeb sponsored House Bill 134, a comprehensive package meant to overhaul New Mexico’s system of juvenile justice. But the measure was ultimately defeated on a 4-2 vote in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.
Reeb said she is taking a more piecemeal approach this time, hoping that breaking her proposals from last year into separate bills will give them a better chance at passage.
Proposals
As of Thursday afternoon, the website of the New Mexico Legislature showed that two of Reeb’s proposals, House Bills 78 and 79, were prefiled and posted online. HB 78 would allow the juvenile records of a defendant to be more easily accessed for purposes of pretrial detention or sentencing for another crime.
HB 79 would reduce the standard of evidence under which a juvenile’s probation can be revoked from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to the lower standard of “preponderance of evidence.”
Other aspects of Reeb’s push for juvenile justice include proposed changes to the risk assessment tool used in determining whether a juvenile suspect should be held in pretrial detention and another to more closely align the procedure for competency evaluations of a juvenile defendant to those used for adults.
The two remaining bills yet to be filed include one to increase the age at which the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department has jurisdiction over delinquents from 21 to 25. Reeb argues that doing so can provide the state with a longer period to keep youth on probation or provide them with treatment to reduce the risk of youth reoffending.
The sixth measure would broaden the list of offenses under which a juvenile can be sentenced as a serious youthful offender, where a juvenile defendant can receive the same mandatory sentence as an adult.
New Mexico law reserves that designation for youth convicted of first-degree murder, but Reeb wants to add second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle or into a dwelling or occupied building that results in great bodily harm.
Reeb’s bill would also add involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, unlawful possession of a handgun and leaving the scene of an accident that causes great bodily harm or death.
‘Balance’ needed
Juvenile crime has been a top priority for Republicans, as Reeb said New Mexico copes with high juvenile crime rates involving firearms and fewer juvenile detention facilities.
“We’re seeing young kids commit crimes, and so we have to adjust to what is happening currently in society,” she said.
Some leading Democrats, such as Speaker Javier Martinez (D-11) of Albuquerque, are skeptical that stiffer penalties are the way to address youth crime.
In a recent interview on New Mexico In Focus, Martinez said he is concerned about juvenile crime, but believes increased behavioral health services, early intervention programs and reforms at the Children, Youth and Families Department are better solutions.
But Reeb said there has to be a balance.
“There are kids that we can change, and we can help, and we can rehabilitate, but then there are some that need to be locked up because they’re dangerous,” she said.
Legislative reporter Alex Ross can be followed on X @alexrosstweets.
Twice retired Hagerman resident Benny Griffin embarked on a third career after his wife suggested he needed to find a way to pay for monthly fishing trips.
“The last time I retired was over a year ago and I was really enjoying fishing. I was fishing one week a month, fishing far off in a different state and my wife had been asking me if I had been looking at the checkbook,” he said in a Jan. 8 interview before the lunch hour at his Bar Ditch Bistro food truck.
Griffin said he wasn’t concerned about the money he spent on fishing – until his wife showed him the toll it was taking on family finances.
“It caught me off guard – my fishing was hitting the checkbook pretty hard,” he said with a smile. “She said, ‘You should look at something to offset that.’”
The Bar Ditch Bistro food trailer serves lunch every Tuesday through Thursday near the intersection of West Main and 13th Streets.Mike Smith | Artesia Daily Press
Griffin, 66, did not want to go back to work for an hourly wage. So he cooked up an alternative.
“I had cooked in the past and thought, ‘I’ll just put a food trailer together,” he said.
Good plan, but it caused a problem: “Now, I don’t have time to fish!”
Griffin was a welder in the oil fields of southeast New Mexico. He also operated heavy equipment, drove tractor-trailers and made a living as a carpenter.
He said he has cooked off and on for oil field companies and for fun for 30 years, so it wasn’t a big leap when opened Bar Ditch Bistro in August.
“I enjoy sharing what I do with other people,” Griffin said. “Any time there’s a restaurant that opens, they start out delicious (and) they start out packed. Somewhere when people start complaining, they make it bland. I have decided I am going to make my food the way I like to make it. The clientele will like it not or not.”
Bar Ditch Bistro can be found near the intersection of 13th and West Main Streets in Artesia Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Griffin serves burgers, brisket, Indian fry bread, macaroni and cheese, nachos, and hot dogs – all made fresh daily.
“We make the fry bread every morning. It’s usually ready by the time we open the door. I make chili at all different times. We bag it and freeze it. We do as much as we can as we have time and freeze everything,” he said.
When Griffin began Bar Ditch Bistro, he struggled to find a name that would fit the food truck.
“I flirted with something along the lines of Roadkill because I’m very sarcastic and I have a hillbilly attitude and I don’t really care about people’s softness. I couldn’t make anything in that manner work,” he said.
Griffin settled on a name that fit both the business and him.
“A bistro is a small high-end café and if I got all of my goods out of a bar ditch that would suit me,” he said.
Griffin likes to visit other places in New Mexico and also in Arizona and Texas, so the mobility of the food truck is ideal for him.
“I like the newness,” he said of traveling to locations beyond Artesia. “I like to see how my cuisine suits everybody.”
But home is home, so Bar Ditch Bistro also made appearances last year at the popular downtown Artesia Oil Patch markets that feature food trucks, bakers, crafters and growers.
“My go-to order is brisket, mac and cheese, and the Indian taco,” said Meghan Martinez, event coordinator for Artesia MainStreet. She became a fan after the first bite.
“Bar Ditch Bistro is an outstanding eatery that has come to our community,” Martinez said. “Fresh made fry bread, smoked tender brisket – and it’s all made with a friendly smile every single time.”
Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 extension-2361.
Six years ago, the average New Mexico teacher earned $180 more than the average New Mexico state employee, notes the Albuquerque Journal in a recent article on the Governor’s 2026 budget proposal. Today, average teacher salaries lag average state employee salaries by $2,563 per year! State employees certainly deserve proper professional salaries, and so do educators. But wait, there’s more that has gone awry here.
This year, the state now provides employees with eighty percent of the insurance premiums, while school district educators only receive a much lower sixty percent share. The legislature does not yet provide the funds for districts to provide fair benefits the teachers deserve while still delivering essentials for the students.
House Majority Caucus Chair Representative Raymond Lara and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are introducing a bill to provide greater compensation parity for education employees with their state employee cohort. The bill would provide state funding so every district can provide their teachers and other employees with the same insurance benefits enjoyed by neighbors who work for the state. This move won’t close the growing salary gap, but it will help educators enormously to stay in the profession as health insurance continues to increase.
Our state’s economic growth is held back, say many commentators by our state’s low education rankings. There is debate about the validity of ranking methods, but everyone agrees nothing is more essential for student success than a highly qualified teacher being able to spend time with each student according to their needs. Students are the first to lose out when teaching doesn’t pay like other jobs with similar qualifications. Offering lower comparable pay packages undermines other initiatives to create a thriving economy. This is doubly true in rural New Mexico where school districts are often the largest single employer.
Teachers deserve a professional salary equal to those paid to similarly qualified professionals. The world’s most advanced education systems like Finland and Singapore pay teachers like attorneys and doctors. That teachers are underpaid in the United States is well-documented.
The teacher pay penalty—the relative gap between the weekly wages of teachers and other college graduates—grew to a record 26.9% in 2024, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
This relative pay penalty, which is adjusted for education, experience, and demographics—has accelerated over the past three decades as teachers’ weekly wages have declined by 5.3% since 1996, while wages of other college graduates have increased by just over 30%. New Mexico educators have recently fared better than most of our colleagues in the US due to significant and greatly appreciated raises in recent years. Yet the pay (and insurance benefit) penalty is still a hindrance to student success.
For this coming year, the Governor proposes the same one percent raise for school employees as for state employees. This will grow the disparity between the two types of employers, further disincentivizing young New Mexicans from becoming teachers. One percent of the state average salary of $73,520 means a state employee raise of $735. The same one percent of the average teacher salary of $70,956.29 means a teacher raise of $710; growing the pay gap.
Providing parity for health insurances (80/20) is absolutely needed to stop the compensation gap from growing even worse. Let’s keep New Mexico’s educators healthy and do whatever is possible to increase compensation so they stay teaching and more New Mexicans will choose the joys of helping our next generation grow and succeed in life as well as in school.
Bethany Jarrell is President of NEA-New Mexico, and a teacher from Alamogordo, NM.
Photo and story provided by NMSU Athletic Communications
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NM State (9-6, 2-3 CUSA) fell for the first time at home this season as Middle Tennessee (10-6, 4-1 CUSA) defeated the Aggies by a score of 59-55 inside the Pan American Center.
NM State was led individually by Jemel Jones, who finished with 16 points, and Cyr Malonga, who recorded 10 points. The Aggie bench outscored the Blue Raider reserves 19-12; however, MTSU posted 28 points in the paint to the Aggies 16.
The Blue Raiders got the first basket and then, like in the last contest, the Aggies would find their stride and go on a 13-0 run to gain a cushion early on in the first half. During the scoring burst, the Aggies were fueled by dunks from Jemel Jones, Cyr Malonga and Julius Mims.
The Aggies would later push their lead to 20-4 with 11:06 left in the half for their largest lead of the half. From there, Middle Tennessee would slowly chip away at the Aggie lead until they would be able to connect on a 3-point basket to knot up the score 29-29 at the half.
Coming out of the half, the Blue Raiders would get off to a hot start with a quick 5-0 run that featured a 3-pointer from Kamari Lands. After starting the period 0-3 from the floor, Cyr Malonga brought the crowd to its feet with a two-handed dunk to leave the score at 36-33 with just under 17 minutes remaining.
A 5-0 run from the Blue Raiders later in the half would extend the Aggies’ deficit to 13 points with 10:13 left on the clock. Then, a three from Julius Mims and another dunk from Malonga would energize the Aggies and help open an extended 13-6 run that allowed the Aggies to pull back within six points.
Eventually, a 3-pointer from Jayland Randall and a free throw from Kyrese Mullen made it a one-possession game with just 1:42 remaining in the game. While the Aggies would have their opportunities, NM State would be unable to pull any closer, falling by four points on its home floor.
NUMBERS OF NOTE
With the loss, NM State drops to 7-1 on its home floor and will now return to the road in search of its first true road win of the season.
NM State’s 55 points were its lowest scoring total of the 2026 campaign. Additionally, the Aggies shot 34.6% from the floor to mark its lowest shooting percentage of the year.
Jemel Jones submitted his third straight game with double-digit points. In total, Jones has now posted 10 or more points in 14 of the Aggies’ 15 games this season.
Cyr Malonga tallied 10 points to record his first double-digit scoring effort since Dec. 13, when he scored 13 points against Tulsa.
The Artesia community is pleased to welcome Remi Gibbs, founder of Renovated Realities, who has recently relocated to the area. An author, speaker, and community builder, Remi’s work centers on personal growth, intentional living, and helping individuals re-frame their perspectives to create meaningful, lasting change.
Through speaking engagements, writing, and community-focused gatherings, Remi is especially passionate about creating spaces where women can connect, grow, and feel supported. She looks forward to building authentic relationships and contributing to a strong sense of community here in Artesia.
Alex Ross’ first trip out west took him about 2,000 miles from Chicopee, Massachusetts, to Havre, Montana, in a 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo.
It was 2015 when Ross, 41, accepted his first reporting job as a staff writer at the Havre Daily News.
More than a decade and thousands of stories later, Ross joined the team at El Rito Media as the company’s legislative reporter. His first day was Monday, Jan. 12.
Alex Ross was hired as legislative reporter for El Rito Media.
The job means Ross will cover the upcoming legislative session as lawmakers from across the state convene in Santa Fe to debate bills and policies and devise a budget for New Mexico. The session starts Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Ross’ stories will be shared across El Rito’s network of five local New Mexico newspapers, including the Alamogordo Daily News, Artesia Daily Press, Carlsbad Current-Argus, Ruidoso News and Rio Grande Sun in Española.
It’s a natural fit for Ross, who most recently worked as a legislative reporter for New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit, web-based outlet dedicated to state politics.
But mostly the new job is a continuation of more than a decade in journalism and a lifelong interest in news and current events.
It started when he was a baby in his native Worcester, Massachusetts, Ross said. His mother Joyce Ross told him he usually woke up early as an infant and she would put him in front of the TV during the morning news show. He kept watching as he grew older and eventually became fascinated with the news.
“I used to memorize the names of all the news anchors,” he said.
When he was about 11 or 12, Ross said, his early fixation became a true interest in the profession of reporting.
At Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Massachusetts, he began writing movie reviews for the student newspaper, The Podium, between eighth and 10th grade.
His penchant for writing and storytelling eventually led to an associate degree in communication from Holyoke Community College, along with an internship at Reminder Publications, a free, weekly newspaper in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
He covered school board and city council meetings at that post and continued such work during a subsequent internship with Turley Publications based in Palmer, Massachusetts, while working on a bachelor’s degree in communications at Westfield State University.
Ross graduated from Westfield in 2010 and faced a reality encountered by many young reporters in the modern era of journalism – with the newspaper industry suffering financially, jobs were hard to find.
To make ends meet he worked at a grocery store and in the administrative office of a local church. But Ross kept sending his resumes, chasing his dream.
“I had interviews, but I was never really chosen. I felt really dejected. I didn’t know if I would ever get into daily, professional journalism,” he said. “Soon, I realized I would have to get out of the area I lived in if I wanted to be competitive.”
It turned out to be another rejection, from the Havre Daily News in 2014, that finally led to a job by putting Ross in contact with Daily News Editor John Kelleher, who offered Ross a position months later after the reporter hired instead of him resigned.
That offer led to myriad beats, topics and stories on everything from local politics and crime to human interest features and coverage of northern Montana’s Indigenous community.
Ross was able to interview national politicians such as U.S. Sen. John Tester (D-MT) and former-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and also celebrities in the entertainment industry including Jeff Ament, bassist for famed grunge band Pearl Jam, who grew up in the nearby farming community Big Sandy, Montana.
His time in Montana, Ross said, showed him the value of local, community-driven journalism and the importance of emphasizing local voices and impacts in everything he writes.
It’s an approach Ross said he maintained while working as a breaking news reporter at the Roswell Daily Record for the next seven years, until September 2025 when he took a short-lived job at the New Mexico Political Report.
With El Rito, Ross said he plans to return to his roots as a local journalist, identifying the biggest storylines emanating from Santa Fe but placing emphasis on how the issues affect local communities.
“The larger markets seem to be overwhelming. You’re just a cog in the machine,” Ross said. “Smaller markets are more personal. You get to know people better.”
He will continue to reside in Roswell where he lives with his wife Phalla Ross, 38, and their three children but plans to travel throughout New Mexico, especially to the five communities El Rito represents.
“I just want to provide comprehensive coverage of the Legislature,” Ross said. “I want to continue to do that but also cover other things that are hyperlocal.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
Former Lincoln County Commissioner Rex Wilson was appointed Wednesday, Jan. 7, to fill the District 33 state Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Nicholas Paul.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Wilson, an Ancho Republican, to replace Alamogordo Republican Paul after reviewing nominees submitted by county commissioners representing the 33rd District’s three counties: Lincoln, Otero and Chaves. Wilson will serve until voters to choose a candidate in this year’s Nov. 3 election to complete the four-year term Paul won in November 2024.
Paul resigned Oct. 14, 2025, citing health concerns but offering no details.
“I am humbled and honored to serve the people of Senate District 33,” Wilson said in as statement released after his appointment was announced. “I look forward to getting meaningful things done for my fellow community members and the citizens of our Great State of New Mexico. Let’s get to work.”
After interviewing applicants for the appointment commissioners from each of the three counties submitted a nominee to the governor. Wilson was nominated by Chavez County. Otero County’s nominee was State Rep. John Block (R-51) and Lincoln County’s choice was Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Fischer.
Other applicants for the seat were Ruidoso attorney and former state representative Zach Cook; Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford; Alamogordo resident Ben Luna; Otero County Attorney R.B. Nichols; and Ruidoso lawyer Matthew Wade.
Wilson is a rancher and former southern region director for Presbyterian Medical Services where he oversaw programs in Chaves, Lincoln and Otero counties, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association named Wilson its 2017 Cattleman of the Year.
Wilson served on the Lincoln County Commission from 1997 to 2003. His son, Kendal, is currently a Lincoln County Commissioner.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer (R-1) praised his newly appointed Senate colleague.
“Rex’s contributions in the Legislature will benefit every New Mexican and he will make a great addition to our New Mexico Senate Republican Caucus,” Sharer said. “I am pleased that New Mexicans in Senate District 33 will have representation heading in to this upcoming Legislative Session.”
