Heather for New Mexico

6/5/2024

Good Math

Behind every statistic is a story. In this campaign, I’ve sometimes pointed to data markers we want to change, like how few of New Mexico’s counties have enough healthcare providers, or how many of our kids learn to read on time, or how few of our small businesses succeed long-term.

But sometimes math tells a GOOD story. We didn’t win last night, but here are some measurable reasons my heart is full of gratitude today.

78 campaign volunteers (probably more actually) leant time, expertise and heartfelt commitment to our cause, enabling us to achieve 4,776 direct contacts with voters via door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, or personal texting.
24 current and former public officials formally endorsed this campaign.
2000 postcards were hand-written by volunteers and sent to fellow voters, urging them to vote.
246 donors – all publicly disclosed – made large gifts and small, to get our work off the ground.
Zero dark money was received nor any PAC mailers sent.
26 constituents dressed up in pink to stand in solidarity for a photo showing our collective commitments to reproductive rights.
32 nurses, doctors, teachers, environmental experts, businesspeople and union members informed the 5 policy mailers on education, economy, environment, healthcare and reproductive rights, contributing to 50,750 pieces of policy-focused mail that went to voters over 9 weeks.
58 supporters, 1 Congresswoman, and 1 Former Lt. Governor cheered us on in last Saturday’s GOTV rally.
22 election day volunteers brought our hopeful energy to polling locations all over Sandoval and Bernalillo County.
11 members of the extended family (Balas, Wellborn, Brown) actively volunteered, including my smart mom, Glenda, and creative brother Jason.
My 2 terrific kids, Devon and Grant, provided support in a myriad of ways – from putting up signs and canvassing, to working polling locations, to making late-night cups of tea.
1 great campaign manager, Brian Morris, kept our eyes, hearts and actions on the right goals for 4 months (with support from Colin Harris and Sisto Abeyta).
10 fantastic Bacas, including my devoted treasurer Gene, volunteer coordinator Sarah, and finance reporting guru Brandie, locked arms and leaned into the wind with my family, helping us stand strong on good days and bad.
1 loving and hard-working husband of 28 years, Joe Wellborn, was chief brand manager, sign captain, and overall sanity defender throughout this entire journey.

And

59 friends, leaders, and family members called or texted in the first 12 hours after the election, encouraging us to build on our movement and try again.

So, who knows what tomorrow will bring. This list represents a beautiful mix of principled people who – with or without me – can make New Mexico more resilient. We can call out injustices. We can join together – across racial, gender, party, and geographic lines – to strengthen our communities, state, and nation. I’m in awe of all of you.

With tremendous gratitude,
Heather

PS: Theme song of the day: Gratitude, by Earth, Wind and Fire

6/5/2024

Campaign Theme Song of the Day

Gratitude! by Earth, Wind and Fire

6/4/2024

Election Day: Theme Song of the Day

The Final Countdown

6/4/2024

The Honor of a Lifetime

Friends,

It has been an honor to be on this journey with you -- as a proud, lifelong Democrat -- to run for the NM State Senate to serve you and your families. Thank you for letting me into your homes via our mailers, calls, and gentle knocks at your doors. I’ve enjoyed learning your ideas about how to move our state forward.

If you need information on our policy priorities, visit HeatherForNewMexico.org/Issues.

I decided to run for office because I’m tired of inaction on so many of the issues that need solutions NOW. This is truly my calling – to take my decades of experience and put them to work for you! You know I’ve been your neighbor for 20 years. It would be the privilege of a lifetime to do for you what I do best: bring people together to solve our toughest problems.

I respectfully ask for your vote TODAY, June 4!

In service and gratitude,

6/3/2024

Theme Song of the Day

One Day More!

6/2/2024

Team Balas Volunteers are Amazing. Really.

We are fortunate to have some of the BEST VOLUNTEERS in the world!! If you'd like to make a HUGE DIFFERENCE in these last few days, we could use your last-minute help to make sure we talk to every voter possible! Email [email protected] if you can spend just two hours!

PS: Yes, we have twins knocking the doors (HB's husband and brother-in-law). Voters do a double-take every time!

6/2/2024

Theme Song of the Day

I Won't Back Down

Enough said. Grin.

6/1/2024

The "Rally in Corraley" :)

Wow! So much appreciation for the terrific volunteers who came out today to join Rep. Stansbury, Lt. Governor Diane Denish, and all of Team Balas for our Get Out The Vote Rally!

For the next 2 days, we need door-knockers, phone-bankers, and Election Day volunteers. Can you help? Email us at [email protected].

In tremendous gratitude!

6/1/2024

Theme Songs of the Day: Pride month begins

"Everything Possible" AND "I'm Still Standing"

Happy Pride Month!

We've been offering a countdown of songs for the final days of the campaign. Today -- honoring the LGBTQ+ movement -- I'm offering something different. Linked below is the lullaby "Everything Possible" by the Unitarian Rev. Fred Small, and performed here by the Flirtations, a fantastic gay a cappella group. I saw this group live, at a concert with cherished friends, in the 90s. The performers said music offered one way parents could ensure their children felt safe finding their own path. Years later I often sang the Everything Possible chorus to my children:

You can be anybody that you want to be
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still

So, later today, I'll return to those loud campaign fight songs. But this morning, let's honor love, inclusiveness, and following one's own heart.

Heather

____________________

Later in the day:

We are doing TWO theme songs for this first day of Pride Month! Let's hear it for "I'm Still Standing" by Elton John!

Stand with us!

Heather

5/31/2024

Theme Song of the Day

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!

Here's our next "Theme Song of the Day" countdown to the election: Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow... which happens to be the last day of early voting! Grab your neighbor and go vote!

5/31/2024

Get Out The Vote Rally -- Join us!

Join us for a Get Out The Vote volunteer featuring Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, Lt. Governor Diane Denish, NM Rep. Kathleen Cates, Corrales Mayor Jim Fahey, former Corrales Mayor Phil Gasteyer, former NM Senator John Sapien, and Heather's awesome volunteers.

June 1, 11 am
Corrales La Entrada Park

5/30/2024

Theme Song of the Day

Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor

In this last week of the campaign, we decided we need a daily theme song to keep the energy up!

What are your faves?

5/29/2024

ABC Newsman Sam Donaldson Endorses Heather

Our team is SO grateful to Sam Donaldson for doing this endorsement ad for Heather's campaign.

5/28/2024

Heather's day job: Defending American democracy

COMMENTARY BY HEATHER
Voters often ask me: What’s your day job? Short answer: I make my living strengthening American democracy.

What does that mean?

It means I work, every day, to help ensure our nation never experiences another January 6th. Nor any similarly motivated smaller riots in state capitols. It means I work to educate the media about how to accurately cover close or contested elections. My work also requires careful review of state laws across the country to make election administration trusted and impartial.

It means I advance fair redistricting, because I believe that partisan and racial gerrymandering undermine America's entire democratic foundation. The linked article is to one of my national columns, but this issue is very real to the people of Sandoval County, where the county Democratic Party and other plaintiffs are leading a court challenge to block Republican gerrymandering and potential violations to the Voting Rights Act.

Related: I’m proud of my efforts to pass the 2021 NM Redistricting Act – which for the first time codified in law that tribal boundaries should be considered in addition to municipal and county boundaries when drawing district lines. I believe New Mexico must finish the job by establishing a truly independent redistricting commission established free of political appointments.

There is more to my day-job, but you get the gist. Our is the nation that invented the modern democracy. We have to nurture that institution – and make sure it works for everyone. That’s the work I will continue doing everyday – before and after I’m elected your NM Senator.

Column by Heather Balas, published in June 2023 by The Fulcrum, a national publication focused on the repair of American democracy.

5/22/2024

Policy Mailer #5: Healthcare and Mental Health

More Doctors Right Here
In her career, Heather advocated for health coverage for all New Mexicans – and today far more of our people have insurance than a decade ago. However, just having an insurance card isn’t good enough. Our people need access to doctors, specialists and other providers right here at home. Heather is tired of hearing too many stories about people waiting months to see a specialist – or giving up and going out of state.

Most of us can’t afford to drive to Phoenix for a doctor. We need great healthcare here at home. Heather will fight to recruit and retain more primary providers, nurses, specialists, and technicians:

Make New Mexico a place where providers want to practice and raise their families.
Ensure it isn’t more expensive for doctors to practice medicine in NM than in neighboring states.
Prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s healthcare providers through effective career pathways starting in high school or earlier.

Protecting Healthcare Quality
We can’t just recruit more providers to New Mexico. We also must nurture and support those who are already here – taking care of our families everyday. This means looking closely at workplace conditions, nursing burnout, staffing ratios, patient loads, and ensuring that institutional policies put patients above profits. Plus we have to ensure that our hospitals – including rural, trauma, and veteran facilities – are fiscally solvent and can meet patient needs.

Protecting Women’s Health
Extremists want to undermine reproductive healthcare – from abortion care, to contraception, to fertility treatments. Heather Balas is a lifelong feminist and a longtime defender of reproductive healthcare, going back to her early career with the Kaiser Family Foundation. Heather will always stand up for New Mexico women.

Protecting Families & Women’s Health
Heather’s own lived experiences inform her commitments to families:

It’s time for New Mexico to finally pass Paid Family Medical Leave with a bill protecting families from catastrophic health crises while keeping our small businesses running strong.
Heather will fight for fair prescription drug prices, including appropriations to enable the newly signed drug cost transparency law to get implemented.
A Moms Demand Action “Gun Sense Candidate,” Heather will take action to reduce gun violence, including magazine size.
Heather knows we don’t have nearly enough mental health providers in New Mexico due to the former governor's debacle in dismantling that system. Heather will make mental healthcare a priority in the NM Senate. She will work to ensure our schools are better prepared to identify issues early, and that police forces are well trained to handle mental health calls.
Prevention of chronic illness is critical to healthy families. Nutrition is the foundation of individual health. Heather will support health education in schools, communities and retirement centers.

Heather meets with union nurses about working conditions.

5/21/2024

We voted! Did you?

POST FROM HEATHER
When I was a girl, Grandma taught me to sew.

So yesterday, wearing a blue dress I made from a Simplicity pattern much like one of hers, I cast my vote. It felt a little like she was with me. My terrific husband, Joe Wellborn, he voted too.

For both of us, seeing my name on the ballot was a profound visual reminder of the trust I’m seeking from all of you. With more than 54,000 constituents in Senate District 9, your next NM Senator will have a huge responsibility. I'm ready to step up and do the important work of representing all of you.

Let's get out there and vote! Don't wait!

5/19/2024

Placitas Community has unique concerns

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS MAILED TO PLACITAS VOTERS
I am fully aware that there are unique and important priorities facing the community of Placitas right now. I write to give you my word that I promise to be your partner – listening to you and working hard for you – to address them.

Specifically, I know that Placitas faces challenges with:

Potable water supply
Proposed controlled burns
Free-roaming horse management
BLM Land Management

You deserve a state senator who knows your issues and has the experience and knowledge to provide practical solutions.

I have that experience, having spent the past 20 years residing in District 9 and working on public policy issues including water conservation and land use.

There is a lot to do for the community of Placitas and all of New Mexico. Let’s do it together.

5/16/2024

Policy Mailer #4: Education

Our kids deserve better. Our kids deserve Heather.

Heather has consulted with hundreds of teachers through town halls, interviews, and school forums. Over a 15-year period, she ran facilitations on overall education reform, early childhood strategic planning, K-12 classroom teacher support, career/tech, and ethnically specific deliberations addressing educational delivery gaps among Hispanic, Native American and African American students.

Heather also helped get off the ground the first Spanish-immersion International Baccalaureate public school in New Mexico and led its governing council.

Continue NM's Investments in Early Childhood
Heather believes we must start at the beginning, with strong early childhood education and continued deployment of NM Pre-K.

Listen to Teachers
Heather believes we must listen to teachers, to make education a career they want to pursue and stay in. This means consulting them at every state of the game. This consultation is particularly critical on matters of educator evaluation systems.

Expand Career-Tech
New Mexico needs to expand career/technical education, especially in middle and high schools, so more of our youth graduate with a plan for their futures.

STEM and the Arts
Include a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, where possible via project-based learning so those concepts have real-world application. Currently NM under-invests in education in numeracy and science. Additionally, Heather was a college music minor. She will always advocate for the preservation of the arts in our schools.

Cultural Relevance
Heather knows we must ensure the offerings of culturally relevant curricula – particularly in schools on tribal lands and with a preponderance of students of color. We must adhere to our NM Constitution – which says that dual-language education will be provided. Heather previously served on the governing of a dual-language public school.

Higher Education
Heather prioritizes strengthening our university departments of education, recognizing that they are preparing the next generation of educators. She has personally interviewed student teachers, who repeatedly report that they don’t feed pedagogically prepared to enter the classroom – not because they don’t have enough coursework but that its not the right coursework to prepare them to be inspiring teachers.

Heather celebrates her son's high school graduation.

5/6/2024

Policy Mailer #3: Environment

The only leader with the experience to protect our air, land and water

Heather has worked on environmental issues for almost 20 years, including wildfire prevention, water policy, and land use. She convened some of the state’s very first public deliberations on the relationship between water supplies and climate change. She also contributed to the passage of the NM Forest and Watershed Restoration Act and energy reforms that reduced vented and flared oil field emissions by 50%.

The ONLY leader to protect against fires
Fiercely protective of the Rio Grande Bosque, Heather will work with community leaders in Corrales, Sandia Pueblo, Bernalillo, Albuquerque, and Rio Rancho to improve coordinated fire suppression and prevention. Heather will also work with Placitas to prevent the types of “controlled burns” that led to the Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak fires in northern NM. She recognizes that our river and high-desert environments are increasingly fragile and – were they to catch fire – might take decades to recover.

The ONLY leader to protect our land and water
Heather will work to protect our region’s limited, and changing, water supply. Heather knows we must address Bernalillo’s aging municipal water system, groundwater monitoring in Placitas, and the irrigation repair of the Corrales siphon in a manner that is also respectful of Sandia Pueblo’s tribal sovereignty.

Raised in an agricultural family, Heather supports continued farmland preservation in Corrales. And, she will work to preserve Clean Water Act protections for all of NM’s rivers and streams.

Heather's candidacy is qualified by the Conservation Voters of New Mexico.

4/29/2024

Corrales "Rides, Strides and Giddyup" a terrific success

POST FROM HEATHER
Wow. Horses, bikes, public safety, wellness -- and a beautiful Corrales day! Cheers to Corrales MainStreet and the Village of Corrales for an awesome Festival: "Rides, Strides and Giddy-up"! I even got a new bike helmet. (Did you know you're supposed to replace them every few years?) Extra cheers to Fire Chief Martinez for the department's public safety efforts, and Suzanne Harper (whose husband Mick puts up with me on the P&Z Commission) for her organizational efforts. Even Stevie's Happy Bikes was there, doing free tune-ups. This is the first weekend of the month-long Viva Corrales celebration of our Village heritage.

4/28/2024

Policy Mailer #2: Jobs and Economy

Protecting NM's Workers and Small Business

Opportunities For Our Kids
Heather knows that too many of our kids are moving out of state for better opportunities and not returning. We must do more to provide better, high-paying jobs. Heather has a long career of uniting people to move New Mexico forward. She’ll be our students’ Number #1 advocate, and she’ll help them realize their dreams right here in our own backyard.

Supporting Our Local Small Businesses
Heather’s first job was for the family farm where she watched her grandparents run a small business. She understands the struggles New Mexicans face. In her career, she led efforts to protect NM’s signature green and red chile industries and to promote NM small businesses. Heather will fight to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers that stifle our small businesses, and she’ll work for better tax policies. Heather will advocate for the state to do a much better job helping our small businesses thrive, so that they can provide more jobs for our community.

Better Pay, Benefits & Training
Heather knows that New Mexicans just want their fair share for a hard day’s work. She’ll fight for fair wages, advance vocational and workforce training programs, and invest in our tribal youth. Heather will use her unique skills as a uniter to finally get a Paid Family Medical Leave bill passed in NM, one that works for employees and business, so that families can care for each other in times of need.

Heather understands how to grow our economy. That's why State Economic Development Cabinet Secretaries Fred Mondragon and Bill Garcia have endorsed her. And why local business leader Gene Baca is behind her 100%.

4/27/2024

We, too, hoped it wouldn’t come to this.

STATEMENT TO VOTERS, FROM HEATHER:
This week my opponent sent out blatantly misleading information. Among other things, she insinuates that my campaign is benefiting from “dark money.” As most of you know, I have dedicated my career to good government, transparency, and clean elections. My campaign's donors are public record and there is no evidence of any outsider spending on our behalf.

My opponent’s claims -- pulled from a political blog and not fact-checked with my campaign -- imply that I benefited from dark money from the New Mexico Project, a political action committee. For less than one day, this PAC listed me among their preferred candidates. While I support the group's focus on Hispanic and small business interests, it also described itself as anti-progressive. I am in no way anti-progressive. Therefore, I immediately asked them to remove me from their list of endorsed candidates, and they did. I received no funding from them.

Further, despite false insinuations to the contrary, I am a lifelong champion of abortion rights, a supporter of paid family medical leave, and an experienced environmental advocate recognized by Conservation Voters of New Mexico.

Let’s be clear. The Democratic voters of Senate District 9 have a big choice to make. I’ve been running a positive campaign, focused on candidate qualifications to address the issues that matter to our community – like healthcare, education, good jobs, and a protected democracy.

I urge my opponent to stay focused on the issues, rather than resorting to misleading claims.

Voters: Please join me today to advance a positive vision for our communities and for New Mexico.

There is a lot to do. Let’s do it together.

In gratitude,
Heather

4/27/2024

Arbor Day in Bernalillo

CAMPAIGN POST
Senate District 9 candidate Heather Balas stopped by Arbor Day at Rotary Park in the Town of Bernalillo. She visited with the terrific Master Gardeners of Sandoval County, picked up some flowers for the garden, ... and drove a train…

4/26/2024

Candidate Forum: Balas versus two Republicans. Nava absent.

CAMPAIGN POST
Fairwinds Rio Rancho, one of the community's largest retirement communities, hosted a candidate forum for Senate District 9. Democratic candidate Heather Balas, along with her two Republican opponents Susana Vasquez and Audrey Trujillo, took part. Balas' Democrat opponent Cindy Nava did not attend.

"We had great conversations with Fairwinds' inspiring residents today," said Balas. "With questions ranging from electric vehicles to education, these smart seniors put us through our paces! I was honored beyond measure by these voters who took time to share their insights, experiences and suggestions for improving our state."

4/25/2024

Balas recognized by NM Conservation Voters

QUALIFIED CANDIDATE ALERT
The Conservation Voters of New Mexico provided Senate District 9 candidate Heather Balas with its Action Fund's "Climate and Conservation Qualified Candidate" designation. This recognition is intended to identify Balas to members and the public as a conservation candidate. Noted by the award committee: "We acknowledge and appreciate your leadership on climate and conservation issues and look forward to continuing to work with you to achieve a healthy, resilient, and just land of enchantment."

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YOUR CART

Our kids deserve better. Our kids deserve Heather.

The only leader with the experience to protect our air, land and water

Protecting NM's Workers and Small Business