EL PASO, Texas – Covid-19 caught New Mexico governess Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2019.
When the state reported 3 cases of Covid-19 in March, it declared a public fitness emergency, cancelling the occasions organized by the state and urging the closure of other giant meetings. Within days, the state established a driving control site. Now, New Mexico has maintained its positive control rate at around 3%, well below those of neighboring Arizona and Texas, where the virus appears to be at more than 15% and 16%, respectively.
Lujan Grisham served as secretary of fitness for years before running for Congress and governor. She said the pleasure of managing public fitness campaigns, running with labs and other fitness services and treating infectious diseases had prepared her to take on Covid.
“I saw this pandemic long before January, and we expanded a strategy of making plans, adding auto tests, so we don’t expect the federal government,” Lujan Grisham told POLITICO Wednesday before speaking at the Democratic National Convention. “Not having a federal effort, reaction, and strategy is misconduct.”
Despite its efforts, New Mexico is still suffering from involving the virus, which swept through the Navajo Nation in the northwest corner of the state. And the closures have devastated the state’s economy that was already suffering.
Now, Lujan Grisham, the country’s first elected Latino Democratic governor, who would have been on Joe Biden’s long list of vice presidential candidates, is tasked with helping the Democratic nominee succeed in Latin American voters, especially in undecided states like Arizona and New Mexico. (New Mexico also made history with Lujan Grisham’s predecessor, Susana Martínez, the country’s first elected, republican.
This interview edited for reasons of length and clarity.
How did the Covid epidemic in New Mexico arise?
One thing we did was claim that it was a genuine emergency, stay on track, and engage the people of New Mexico in intelligent behavior of public fitness. At first, we said, there will have to be a mandatory mask order everywhere.
We’ve been in the most productive states for testing. Personally, I approve after testing, supplies, products in the front finish for swabs, then in the later finish, reagents and is helping to obtain our laboratory instruments, then personal sector partners and public fitness staff committed to make sure they can only take samples from Americans, all paid for, so that there is no impediment to getting tested.
We were one of the first states to say that asymptomatic Americans want to be controlled, which allowed us to react quickly. Without delay, we turn to a burning company or organization. We clean, paint with them, close them. We check everyone so we can manage an extension. So, even when the rest of the neighboring states had benefactor network paints that you can’t overtake or control, we were able to weigh our curve again.
I just need to say, for the most purposes, that I despise festivals with other states. The concept that a circle of relatives or users in New Mexico is more vital and valuable to a user in Texas is unsustainable, so not having a federal effort, reaction, and strategy is pro-misconduct.
Do you think schools will reopen this fall?
We believe we will be the first state in the country to be able to provide a very limited and hybrid K-5 in-person schooling technique that mitigates the dangers to academics and educators and their families. I am cautiously confident that we will be able to do this well with our success at Covid.
What about the indigenous peoples living in New Mexico? Are you suffering with some of the Covid rates in the country?
Sovereign nations worked with a federal effort, not a state effort, because they were forced to do so. The entire Navajo Nation also deals with Utah and Arizona. They’re very many other state strategies. They have no running water or electric power and live in multigenerational homes. This explains why they were at maximum threat and deserved a much larger federal response. We have been very intelligent partners and I appreciate your leadership. New Mexico’s sovereign nations have been locked up in their communities, and it may have been much worse, but I’m disappointed by every life lost in this state.
Do you think Biden does more to succeed among Latino voters?
I’m going to broaden your question. I hope you don’t mind. Most applicants have not involved developing Hispanic communities or Latino communities across the country. And this requires not only a national effort, but also a state-by-state, community-by-community effort. We see that the largest population organization is young Latin Americans, the Hispanic electorate, and workers. We want to address policies that express their ability to respond and realize the American dream. Immigration is a very complex thing that complicates here. I don’t think as a nation we’re committed to that.
Each of us, adding myself, for Biden’s campaign, I have to go beyond the convenience zone of my state. We want to succeed in other states. That’s what I did: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas. We want to do more. If more than 70 days [until the November elections] are difficult, it is feasible, and I hope we do not lose momentum.
All Americans deserve to feel important. But when you’re a color network that’s been left through several elected leaders, especially that user, the existing user who occupies the White House, then I expect them to be built on time.
What do you think Biden does to succeed in this organization with the time he’s out of the campaign?
If you have the opportunity to contact Joe Biden, you feel he is communicating with you directly. That’s the basis of the first name. I have no doubt he’ll win his vote. We want you to be able to do as many things as you can imagine in Covid’s world. And I actually know it’s up to the task.
I think it is right in El Paso to communicate with you and other elected leaders and constituent members about what El Pasoins deserves, especially as a city of immigration, policies and methods to adopt as a precedent to make a difference in their lives right away.