High School teacher also running for state representative

High school teacher Melba Aguilar has worked for the Socorro Consolidated School District for four years.
Submitted photo

Socorro High School teacher Melba Aguilar is the third Socorroan hoping to represent the newly redrawn 38th congressional district. Aguilar will run in the Republican primary in June. Two other Socorro residents—Mayor Ravi Bhasker and Positive Outcomes CEO and school board member Tara Jaramillo—are vying for the seat. They will both be in the Democratic primary.

Aguilar says she is running because “Teachers see everybody, and I get to see all the potential our kids have and also how much they go through and how much they’re up against. I’m really passionate about it. I want them to have better chances.”

Aguilar was born in Alaska and grew up in New Mexico. She got a chemical engineering degree at New Mexico Tech. She began a Masters in materials engineering but decided to become a high school teacher instead. She has worked for the Socorro Consolidated School District for four years and has never held public office before.

Aguilar is a devout Catholic and committed to being pro-life and she is a gun owner whose campaign website discusses second amendment rights, but neither of those issues is the focus of her campaign. Instead she is focused on crime, education and the economy, which she believes are intertwined issues.

“On the national stage, this crime, crime, crime thing ends up looking really punitive. Our kids really suffer from this. It’s hard to grow up insecure, to grow up beleaguered by trauma, the things that happen to you, that happen to your parents. We’ve got predators in our community that nobody does anything about because it’s practically legal, it’s a misdemeanor.”

She believes the solution is mutli-part.

“Part of it’s law, part of it’s adequate mental health programs and getting people the social supports they need to not reoffend, because people by and large don’t want to reoffend. They want to be productive parts of their community and raise their kids in a good environment. Most people want that. So, the diversion programs seem to be very effective and we don’t have a lot of them.”

Aguilar would also like to see changes to the state’s taxation policy.

“Our taxation policy right now, the so called pyramid taxation, kind of punishes businesses right now. We can model off of neighboring states that support businesses. Tax reform I think is essential here.”

She’d also support potentially increasing taxation of out of state property owners with vacant properties.

“There’s a number of those properties in New Mexico, and in Socorro, there’s a number with Texas owners. They would rather keep the property vacant as a write off than rent at market rates. That sucks, because we’ve got people here who want to do good things, who need the space to do that.”

Aguilar would like to see investment in energy outside of oil and gas but said she’s not in favor of punishing oil and gas to get there.

“We’re one of the best places for solar, one of the best places for wind. We’re rich in resources needed for this and we could be leaders for this. We also have the human resources for this, between the labs and Tech.”

The general election is on November 8. The new districts go into effect on January 1, 2023.