MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Just four days before the New Hampshire primary, seven candidates took the stage in The Granite State for one of their final moments to pitch themselves as the best Democratic choice for the 2020 election. Here are the major takeaways from the ABC News Democratic debate on Friday night. Sanders, Buttigieg
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — The New Mexico state Senate narrowly approved a red-flag gun bill Friday afternoon that has been propelled by concerns about the 2019 mass shooting in nearby El Paso and suicide prevention efforts. The bill won Senate approval on a 22-20 vote with Republicans and a several Democrats voting against it.
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DES MOINES, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg held a slim lead over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses with the Iowa Democratic Party announcing on Thursday night that 100% of precincts were reporting. The former South Bend, Indiana mayor leads the Vermont senator by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted, which is roughly one-tenth
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EL PASO, Texas — It’s been almost seven months since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott banned so-called red light cameras in Texas. Now, after a six-month “wind-up” agreement between the city of El Paso and Redlfex Traffic Systems, those lights are supposed to be coming down. Texas House Bill 1631 was signed into law on June
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — Democratic legislators pressed a plan Wednesday to increase annual state spending by more than a half-billion dollars to expand early childhood education programs, boost teacher salaries and shore up health care for the poor. The state House debated the merits of a $7.6 billion general fund spending plan for the
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ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico — The group known as Cowboys for Trump is seeking arbitration in a fight with the New Mexico secretary of state over fines and required reports. The arbitration request says Cowboys for Trump is protesting the requirements because it argues campaign finance laws violate free speech and the group doesn’t meet the
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — After President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, freshman Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of El Paso delivered the Democratic response in Spanish. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivered their party’s response to Trump’s address in English, and Escobar followed it up with a Spanish-language version of the speech
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso city Rep. Sam Morgan will not be censured as a result of domestic violence charges he’s facing following his arrest in October of last year. El Paso City Council had debated for months whether to censure Morgan, finally rejecting a measure to so by a 3-2 vote on Tuesday.
Continue Reading DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa’s Democratic Party started releasing partial caucus results late Tuesday afternoon following a day-long delay sparked by technical problems. With 62% of Iowa precincts reporting, Pete Buttigieg was leading with 26.9%. Bernie Sanders was in second with 25.1%. The tally of state delegate equivalents released Tuesday showed Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden
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EL PASO, Texas — The future of Texas politics lies in the hands of minority voters, according to Democrat efforts and the Republican lieutenant governor. El Paso’s Beto O’Rourke declaring his goal to make the Texas house blue, but no luck on the first race he helped in. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick visiting El Paso
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico – The City of Las Cruces has settled three separate lawsuits with former employees at a cost of $1.46 million to the taxpayers, according to records obtained by ABC-7. “We’re just trying to cut our losses and deal with it this way,” admitted Mayor Ken Miyagishima. “The bottom line is, the
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GREENBELT, Maryland — A Coast Guard lieutenant accused by prosecutors of being a domestic terrorist intent on committing politically motivated killings inspired by a far-right mass murderer was sentenced Friday to more than 13 years in prison for firearms and drug offenses. Christopher Hasson, 50, had faced a maximum prison sentence of 31 years at
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EL PASO, Texas — Billionaire and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg courted Latino voters in an El Paso campaign visit Wednesday night, the only remaining hopeful to visit the city. Bloomberg has focused his Democratic presidential campaign on Super Tuesday states like Texas and California, where primaries across the country assign the majority of
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — A Democrat-backed bill to legalize recreational marijuana businesses in all towns and counties across New Mexico has passed its first test amid heighten interested from businesses and health care advocates. The Senate Public Affairs Committee late Tuesday voted 4-3 along party lines to move along the measure that would subsidize
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — A proposal has advanced in the New Mexico state Legislature that would allow law enforcement officials or family members to seek court orders to seize firearms temporarily from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. A Senate committee endorsed the bill on a party-line vote with Democrats in support.
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A crowd of hundreds packed the Doña Ana County Commission meeting Tuesday, with more gathered outside to voice opposition against a proposed state red-flag gun law. Commissioners limited public comment to just ten opponents (only six spoke in favor) before voting 3-2 to oppose New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s
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ANTHONY, Texas — The Town of Anthony Council agreed Monday night to spend $4,000 to provide identity theft protection services as a result of a recent “data breach related to town employees personal information.” The breach involved what the mayor called a mistaken release of the social security numbers of 16 current and former town
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — For dozens of New Mexico State Univeristy students, the availability of donated food is the difference between their decision to stay in class or drop out. “For a lot of them, it means between staying in school or not to be honest,” said Meg Long, program specialist for the Aggie
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico legislators are considering a full ban on flavored tobacco and nicotine vaping products along with more robust oversight of retail sales to discourage use by minors and young adults. Backed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, one initiative would raise the age limit for tobacco sales including vaping
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WASHINGTON, DC — Joe Biden is holding his ground in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with Bernie Sanders a close second and Elizabeth Warren experiencing a drop in support. Next on the leaderboard are two new arrivals: Mike Bloomberg and Andrew Yang. With the Feb. 3
Continue Reading Bernie Sanders leads the race for the Democratic nomination in New Hampshire, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. Overall, 25% of likely Democratic primary voters back the Vermont senator, with former Vice President Joe Biden (16%), former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (15%) and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Continue Reading Pete Buttigieg will close out his campaign in Iowa focusing on his ability to win over disaffected Republicans who backed President Donald Trump in 2016, his campaign tells CNN, hoping that Democrats who are hellbent on defeating Trump in November will be wooed by a candidate who can eat into the President’s support. The concerted
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EL PASO, Texas — Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and German Green Party Chairman Robert Habeck took a tour of Walmart Memorial at Ponder Park. Both politicians paid their respects to the lives lost during the August 3rd mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart. While Habeck paid respect for all the victims he had a chance
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EL PASO, Texas – Final results Saturday night in the runoff election for El Paso’s district six council seat indicate Claudia Lizette Rodriguez has won the race, beating Debbie Torres. According to unofficial election results, Rodriguez had 645 votes (53.09%) and Torres had 570 votes (46.91%). The polls closed at 7 p.m. on Saturday. At
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EL PASO, Texas — Election Day is Saturday for voters in El Paso’s District 6, where a runoff election for a city council representative is taking place. The two candidates who are facing off in hopes of filling the seat are Claudia Lizzette Rodriquez and Debbie Torres. Neither got a majority of votes in the
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and El Paso congresswoman Veronica Escobar will deliver the Democratic Response to President Trump’s State of the Union address. According to a news release, Escobar will be delivering the Spanish language response. “Democrats in
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso city Rep. Claudia Ordaz-Perez is facing new ethics complaints stemming from the campaign contribution reports she filed last week. As ABC-7 has previously reported, Ordaz-Perez is resigning her city council seat to run for state representative for district 76. Ross Moore, who does not live in her district but
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico’s leading House Republican said he found it “disrespectful” that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham failed to cite the oil and gas industry in her State of the State speech on Tuesday at a time when the industry is providing record revenues to the state’s coffers that will fund some
Continue Reading (Editor’s note: You can watch the entire State of the State address in the video player above.) SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday urged legislators at the outset of the state’s annual legislative session to rally around new financial commitments to public education that range from an expansion
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — El Paso city Rep. Sam Morgan pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a domestic violence charge as City Council again debated whether or not to censure him. Morgan appeared briefly at a court arraignment and entered a written plea of not guilty. A short time later he was at Tuesday’s council meeting
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