Last week, after months of dedicated leadership to deliver accountability, justice, and compensation on behalf of the victims of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez passed her Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act through the House and Senate via the Continuing Resolution budget bill, including $2.5 billion dollars in compensation for the survivors. This is a huge achievement and an important step in making whole the communities impacted by the wildfires.

Securing justice for New Mexico families should be a nonpartisan issue, yet Republican nominee Alexis Martinez Johnson is playing politics and spreading disinformation about Congresswoman Leger Fernandez’s consistent record of showing up for New Mexico families, falsely describing the aid the Congresswoman fought for months to secure as an election ploy. Local TV station KOAT called Martinez Johnson out on her shameless lies in a recent fact check:

KOAT’s reporting makes clear that immediately after the wildfires started, Rep. Leger Fernandez called for an investigation on the circumstances that led to the Hermit’s Peak prescribed burn, and called on the U.S. Forest Service to suspend all prescribed burns until the problems were identified, and remedied.

Rep. Leger Fernandez has tirelessly fought to secure FEMA assistance for affected residents, communities, and acequias, and is working with FEMA to improve their response. She has also been a leading advocate for the firefighters who fought the blazes – working to improve firefighter pay and benefits.

Before successfully passing it through both chambers and securing funding via the continuing resolution, Rep. Leger Fernandez had already succeeded in passing her Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act through the House twice. Last week’s $2.5 billion dollar announcement is the culmination of months of dedicated hard work on behalf of Congresswoman Leger Fernandez – and she will only continue fighting to make sure the families impacted receive the full compensation for everything they have lost.

New Mexico’s third district deserves tireless public service from their Congresswoman – not Alexis Martinez Johnson’s lies and political games.