Xochitl Torres Small is no moderate: her rhetoric vs. her record

In recent weeks, vast misinformation campaigns have begun on behalf of the extremely vulnerable Democrat congresswoman from New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, Xochitl Torres Small. The New Mexico Political Report, a far-left blog powered by ProgressNow NM reprinted an article originally appearing in the Colorado-based environmental journal, High Country News.

The profile piece tried to paint the 1st-term incumbent as a moderate, saying “Torres Small attributes her success to her emphasis on issues her rural constituents care about, regardless of party.” It further explains, “On several issues, she’s charted a middle course, breaking with her party to oppose gun purchase background checks, while voting to protect health care for people with pre-existing conditions and restore the Paris climate accord.”

The carefully-selected issues the article focuses try to manipulate the truth by 1) saying Xochitl Torres Small “[broke] from her party” on gun control, which is just not true, and 2) implying that all Republicans are against covering pre-existing conditions, even though President Trump and Republicans in Congress support the coverage of pre-existing conditions in health care legislation. Xochitl Torres Small’s legislative record on gun control shows her false pro-2nd Amendment political stance. But let’s go into each legislative issue, and determine just how “bipartisan” Xochitl really is.

Gun Control

Xochitl Torres Small claims to be moderate on gun rights, most visibly in her 2018 political ad, where she could be seen shooting a hunting rifle (while her voiceover mentioned nothing about gun rights). In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal, Torres Small claimed to be against the all-out repeal of the 2nd Amendment, however, she said she is in favor of “keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people, including domestic abusers, requiring comprehensive background checks for all gun sales, and closing loopholes in existing laws to keep our kids and communities safe.”

Torres-Small has finessed her argument to buff over details of her regulatory beliefs, to make them seem palatable by calling her approach “comprehensive” and “common-sense.” Well, let’s see how she has voted on gun control in Congress.

H.R. 8, the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019”

Torres Small supported H.R. 8, a leftist bill claiming to be “bipartisan” legislation on guns, which would implement “universal background checks,” according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The bill would “expand federal firearms recordkeeping and background check requirements to cover intrastate transactions made between unlicensed persons by routing such transactions through Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs).”

H.R. 8 would also “prohibit any implementing regulations that would (1) require FFLs to facilitate private firearms transactions; (2) require unlicensed sellers or buyers to maintain any records with regard to FFL-facilitated background checks; or (3) place a cap on the fee FFLs may charge for facilitating a private firearms transfer. “

Essentially, this legislation would mandate stringent background checks on all purchases and gifting of firearms (even if it is an inherited item being passed down from a relative). The notion that this bill is “bipartisan” is also a farce, since the only Republican members who voted for this bill are the extremely liberal GOP “Gang of Eight,” including Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Vern Buchanan (FL), Brian Mast (FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (FL), Will Hurd (TX), Pete King (NY), Chris Smith (NJ), and Fred Upton (MI).

These Republican members of Congress often vote against their party, and if this legislation was truly “bipartisan,” why is it that 188 Republican members voted against the measure, joined by 2 Democrats? The “Gang of Eight” make up a weak 4% of the entire Republican conference.

If Torres Small really cared about keeping gun rights for all Americans, and for standing by the 2nd Amendment, then she would have been one of the few Democrats voting against this overreaching measure, not one of the many Democrats voting for it. This bill would need 60 votes to become law, and the numbers are just not there in the Senate to pass this universal background check bill. Since this bill has a 0% chance of becoming law, the bill seems to merely be a way to put Democrat members on the record, as to where they stand on this issue. Torres Small has proven she is for radical gun bills, and definitely not a friend of the 2nd Amendment.

H.R. 1112, the “Enhanced Background Checks Act”

Torres Small voted against H.R. 1112, a weak bill which CRS says “would revise the GCA background check provision to lengthen the delayed sale period, which is three business days under current law.” The bill would lengthen the amount of time a person has to wait on a holding period from 3 days to 10 days, but would not have anything to do with such things as putting universal background checks on individuals.

CRS further describes the bill, by explaining that “at the end of 10 business days, the prospective transferee could petition the Attorney General for a final firearms eligibility determination. If the FFL does not receive a final determination within 10 days of the date of the petition, he or she could proceed with the transfer.”

Again, Torres Small by no means is being “bipartisan” by her “Nay” vote on this, since she joined 7 other Democrat colleagues in voting against the bill. Make no mistake: Xochitl Torres Small is in favor of stringent gun restrictions, and any small olive branch she has given is not a sign of courage. Not even half of the “Gang of Eight” voted for H.R. 1112, with only 3 Republicans backing it, one being the co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Peter King.

Abortion

Xochitl Torres Small has avoided the abortion issue like the plague in Congress since she obviously sees it as a losing issue for her. Regardless, she worked for Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC for nearly three years, and has stated very plainly that she favors abortion-up-to-birth, with no restrictions, calling late-term abortion a “life-saving medical procedure” in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal. Although she claims abortion saves lives, thousands of leading medical experts contend that abortion is never medically-necessary.

Xochitl is also a member of the militant “pro-choice caucus,” which describes itself as “the first line of defense against anti-choice legislation.” She has co-sponsored a rabidly pro-abortion bill called the “Women’s Health Protection Act of 2019,” which claims it “would protect the right to abortion by creating a safeguard against restrictions on abortion that apply to no similar medical care.”

Late-term abortion is not popular among Xochitl’s constituents, and it’s definitely not supported by New Mexico southern Democrats. Eight New Mexico senators voted against the radical HB-51 in March of this year, rejecting a bill that would have legalized abortion up-to-birth for any reason, which Xochitl has affirmed she supports. If this issue is pushed in the campaign, Xochitl will have a tough battle in her reelection efforts.

Illegal Immigration

Although thousands of illegal migrants ravage New Mexico’s southern border with Mexico, Xochitl Torres-Small has refused to call it a crisis, instead branding it as a “challenge,” and refusing to label illegal aliens anything other than “asylum seekers.” She has also blamed the Department of Homeland Security for the issues on the border, saying the mess is a result of HDS not having “permanent leadership.”

Xochitl is also against the construction of a border wall, saying it may be effective in some areas, but in her district, it’s not necessary, as there are other “technologies” out there that are more useful.

Xochitl Torres-Small is in favor of amnesty for law-breaking illegal aliens, who cut in line before the hard-working people who toiled to come to America legally. She told the Albuquerque Journal that she wants to create “options to bring people out of the shadows, [allow] individuals to work and live in the United States legally,” with “a meaningful pathway to citizenship for qualified applicants,” while “targeting criminals rather than ripping apart families.” She voted in favor of legalizing illegal aliens who came to the U.S. as children in the DREAM Act.

Xochitl’s stance is not only dangerous for security on the border, but also gravely misleading, as she is trying to whitewash the fact that criminal aliens broke laws to come to America. By trying to paint them as innocent “families,” she is further propagating a false narrative, that is both promoting lawlessness and downplaying the gravity of these immigrants breaking our laws. Giving law-breakers rewards (or amnesty) for their unlawful presence in the United States shows just how radical her immigration stance is.

Energy

Although Xochitl Torres Small may parade around as someone who is “moderate” on the energy issue, she is no friend to oil & gas producers in her district. She made this perfectly clear by her endorsement of New Mexico’s radical Green New Deal-esque legislation, named the “Energy Transition Act.” You can read more about it here. The Act aims to wipe out energy producers by 2050 through heavily-regulating carbon dioxide, and incrementally imposing hostile rules, to deter oil & gas business from the state, definitely not a bipartisan bill in the slightest.

Xochitl told the Albuquerque Journal that she believes “climate change poses a threat to our way of life in New Mexico – the years will get hotter and drier, and water will become an even scarcer resource.”

Xochitl is a fan of Barack Obama’s Paris Climate Agreement, voting for a House resolution to block President Trump from withdrawing the U.S. from it. The accord, which the U.N. itself has called a sham, is a costly and aggressive move, with “no objective standard [each country] must meet or emissions reduction it must achieve.”

Xochitl Torres-Small co-sponsored a bill with the New Mexico congressional delegation which would designate thousands of acres of land untouchable to energy producers, while cloaking it as “public lands” legislation around the Chaco Canyon area in New Mexico.

As a water rights lawyer, Xochitl worked to “prioritize water conservation and efforts to combat climate change.” She is endorsed by the leftist anti-oil & gas group League of Conservation Voters, where they called her a “champion for a clean energy economy.”

Health Care and Religious Liberty

Xochitl Torres-Small has been quiet about her extreme left-wing views on health care, but many of her opponents have claimed she is in favor of a Bernie Sanders socialist-style takeover of health care. Although she has sponsored mildly-controversial bills, such as a bill regarding rural health care, she has co-sponsored extreme abortion bills, as explained above. Xochitl has publicly stated that she wants to expand Obama’s socialist Affordable Care Act, definitely not a bi-partisan stance on the health care issue in the slightest.

Xochitl Torres Small was a large proponent of and voted for the “Equality Act,” which would strip religious protections away from businesses and health care workers (a direct violation of the First Amendment), enable sexual assault by allowing men and gender-confused persons into women’s sports and women’s bathrooms, and lead to parents losing custody of their children. The radical legislation championed by Xochitl shows the lack of respect she has for the First Amendment and for religious communities who reject certain cultural and sexual practices based on their religious faith.

Summary

Although the issues covered above are not all-inclusive of every single issue, they do cover important points, which Xochitl Torres has claimed to be a “moderate” on, however, the facts do not fall in her favor, as her voting record and her position on key issues align far to the left. There is not a single core issue which would give the slightest indication of Xochitl’s swing even moderately to the right. She favors stringent gun restrictions, abortion up-to-birth, extreme environmental regulations, socialist-style health care, and amnesty to illegal aliens, without support of a physical barrier on the border.

Xochitl Torres Small has proven to New Mexico how dangerous she is for our state, and how out-of-touch she is with the voters she deceived to slide her way in to Congress.