Raul Torrez

Crime and public safety: New Mexico continues to struggle with violent crime, fentanyl and repeat offenders. What should the attorney general’s role be in addressing crime, and what specific actions would you take that are not already being handled by local prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and the courts?

My job as attorney general is to do what no single district attorney or police department can do alone: work across jurisdictions, build statewide systems, and change the laws that keep failing us.

Gun violence doesn’t respect city or county lines, but for too long our response was hampered by them. That’s why I created the nation’s first Crime Gun Intelligence Center housed in an attorney general’s office. About 30 partner departments now feed ballistic evidence into one statewide network. In one case, analysts traced a single gun to 17 different crimes.

On fentanyl, I’m willing to hold anyone accountable, including the federal government. I sued the U.S. Justice Department for records on allegations that DEA agents let large quantities of fentanyl reach our streets while overdose deaths here rose 21%.

On repeat offenders, I’ve pushed for years to require defendants charged with the most serious violent crimes to prove they can be safely released before trial. I’ll keep fighting for that. My office will also keep doing the work local offices aren’t positioned to do, such as prosecuting officers who use unlawful deadly force and running undercover operations against online predators.

Consumer protection: New Mexicans face concerns ranging from scams and predatory business practices to rising utility and insurance costs. What would be your highest priorities for the Attorney General’s Office in protecting consumers, and when should the state take legal action against private companies?

My highest priority is protecting kids and families from companies that profit from harming them. I started my career as a child abuse prosecutor, handling one defendant at a time. As attorney general, I can go after the technological architecture that enables exploitation at scale.

That’s why we took Meta to trial and won. A Santa Fe jury imposed the maximum penalty, $375 million along with an order requiring Meta to pay $567 million to address the youth mental health crisis, making New Mexico the first state to beat a major tech company at trial for harming young people.

Rising utility costs are the other front. I secured a $115 million rate credit for PNM customers. I also urged regulators to reject the sale of New Mexico Gas Company unless ratepayers got real protections against debt-driven rate hikes.

The state should take predatory corporations to court. Too often, our law doesn’t equip my office with the tools necessary to get justice for New Mexican families and deter future bad behavior by predatory corporations. The Unfair Practices Act was passed in 1967. It says nothing about surveillance pricing, data brokering, or the ways tech companies exploit what they know about consumers. In 2027, I’ll push for the most significant modernization of consumer protection law in any state in decades.

Challenging the federal government: New Mexico’s attorney general has increasingly joined other states in lawsuits challenging actions of the federal government. What standard would you use to decide when New Mexico should participate in such litigation, including when the president is a member of your own political party?

I will stand up to any presidential administration that exceeds its constitutional or statutory authority in ways that matter to New Mexicans. There’s no rigid formula, but the starting point is always whether a case is of central importance to the people of this state.

The cases that matter most involve federal funding that New Mexicans depend on. We have the highest share of Medicaid enrollment in the country. We rely on federal education dollars, and UNM’s cancer research depends on NIH grants. Working with other states, we’ve challenged unlawful cuts and overreach on funding, elections, immigration, tariffs and state sovereignty. We’ve restored and protected more than $800 million for New Mexico. My oath is to the people of New Mexico and the Constitution, not to any party or president.

The reach of the office: The attorney general has broad authority involving public safety, consumer protection, environmental enforcement, civil rights and government accountability. Where do you believe the office is currently falling short, and what would you change during your first year in office?

Where this office falls short, it’s mostly because state law hasn’t given us the tools the job requires. In my first year of a new term, I’ll focus on fixing that.

First, I’ll push to modernize our consumer protection law for the digital economy.

Second, I’ll seek clear authority for my office to investigate civil rights violations, including violations of the rights of children in state custody.

Third, I’ll build on our investigation of CYFD, which produced a report of more than 200 pages and two lawsuits. We need to strengthen the Office of the Child Advocate and restore the investigative powers stripped out at the last minute. A watchdog can’t do its job if the agency it oversees can obstruct it.

With a new governor in January, I look forward to a partnership that can yield real legislative results and turn these priorities into law.

The Bulletin asked each Dona Ana County candidate four questions to allow voters to assess where the candidates stands on important issues heading into the election. The questions vary for each office, but are the same for every candidate running for the same office.