The Santa Fe New Mexican recently featured our Call for Climate Courage action in their coverage of the Opening Day of the 2025 Legislative Session. Read on or click here to learn more!
Many in Public Denied Seats to Speech After Governor's Team Takes Up Large Share
By Cormac Dodd and Daniel J. Chacón, Santa Fe New Mexican, January 21, 2025
Christopher Trancosa traveled from San Felipe Pueblo on Tuesday morning to grab a seat for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's State of the State address and other fanfare on the first day of the 2025 legislative session.
He arrived at the Roundhouse around 10:30 a.m. – long before the speech – but was slouched in a chair, arms crossed, outside the doors of the House gallery, still waiting for a spot as the Governor's talk got underway.
Trancosa was one of dozens of members of the public waiting in hallways of the Capitol as Lujan Grisham began speaking around 2 p.m. They were denied a seat in the gallery because it was at capacity – half-filled with a large number of the governor's executive team, including Cabinet secretaries, advisers and public information officers – before seating was opened to the general public.
"What can we do? As minorities, we're still getting treated the same was as we have been getting treated for centuries," said Trancosa, a member of San Felipe Pueblo's administration. "That's the way I feel about it."
As Francisco Apodaca of Las Vegas, N.M., held out hope for a seat to open, he said the State of the State turned out to be a "state of disarray."
"This is the people's house, but they let all the governor's staff and all Cabinet staff to take up seats," he said. "The public should be here. ... By having state employees sitting there who are not doing their jobs, sitting on their butts, on my tax dollar – that's wrong."
Richard Sena, the House sergeant-at-arms, saw a silver lining in the seating debacle: Protesters were unable to cause a ruckus during the governor's speech.
Last year, pro-Palestinian and climate activists disrupted Lujan Grisham, shouting from the gallery. While climate protesters demonstrated outside the building Tuesday – even blocking traffic along Old Santa Fe Trail – there was no room in the House gallery for such protests this year, Sena noted.
"The way it turned out was fortunate because we had the reserved seating, and then what showed up were actually members of the governor's staff," he said.
Some people moved to designated overflow rooms on the third floor of the Capitol, where they watched Lujan Grisham's speech on a screen.
"At times it was cutting in and out," said Jennette Salvador, senior center director for Acoma Pueblo.
Salvador has attended the State of the State before and has never found it too full to find a seat. “I’ve come for the last three years, and I’ve always been able to sit in the House in the gallery itself,” she said.
Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, said she was “incredibly disappointed” the public was essentially denied entry to the State of the State address.
“Before I had the privilege of running for office, I came up to the Capitol just like these New Mexicans to be part of democracy, and what’s happening today is not democratic,” she said.
Lara Cadena said the state employs “incredible people” who “doing their jobs every single day.”
But, she added, “they don’t need to be in the gallery today.” She noted they could watch the talk online.
Some Capitol-goers without gallery seats ventured to the Rotunda to watch performances.
Isabella Nuanez of Albuquerque danced while a Flamenco band held a crowd in thrall, twirling and tapping the heeled shoes. Her long red skirt flowed.
“I feel like it connects a lot to the culture and heritage that we hold here in New Mexico already. It’s a beautiful form of expression,” said Nuanez, a member of Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Co. She’s been dancing since she was 3, she said, but it was her first time dancing in the state Capitol.
'Our Mother Earth is Burning'
Undaunted by Tuesday morning’s biting cold, youth protesters placed wooden structures that looked like oil rigs on sidewalks along Old Santa Fe Trail before 9 a.m. Getting an early start, they unfurled banners bearing messages such as: “NM is Not a Sacrifice Zone” and “Stop Fracking Our Future.”
“We are here to tell our Legislature — who are responsible for the second-largest oil production anywhere, really, second only to Texas — that we cannot continue to let industry sacrifice our health and well-being,” said Jonathan Juárez of Albuquerque, standing outside the Capitol.
Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, a group of activists better known as YUCCA, was making good on plans to protest on the opening day of the New Mexico Legislature’s 60-day session. By 10 a.m., a group of around 100 people had blocked traffic on Old Santa Fe Trail while some finished painting an Earth mural on the street.
Ennedith López, policy campaign manager for YUCCA, talked about some of the organization’s goals heading into the new session.
“We’re here to make it clear that we cannot continue to ignore the climate crisis. We cannot continue to allow our New Mexican economy to depend on oil and gas. That’s an industry that has to die down in order to ensure that our communities have a fighting chance,” López said.
Zephyr Jaramillo, 23, of Isleta Pueblo was among those leading the protest in chants.
“Our Mother Earth is burning, and the people that are allowing that to happen are in the Roundhouse right now making those decisions,” Jaramillo said. “She’s going to keep burning as long as those decisions that they are making are extending the life of the fossil fuel industry and are lining their pockets.”
As the protest began wrapping up at 11 a.m., another demonstration was peaking.
About 30 members of Communication Workers of America Local 7076, a union representing thousands of employees at 13 state agencies, held signs and chanted: “Pay More. Staff Up!” one sign read.
“Right now, we’re in contract bargaining with the state. We’ve been contract bargaining with them for about six months,” said Megan Green, president of CWA Local 7076. “Everything we are proposing would help our members be better workers but it would also help the state be a better employer.”