Michelle Garcia Holmes Holds Fundraiser With Extreme Anti-Abortion Group With Ties To Alleged Domestic Terrorism

Extreme Couple that Sent Illegal Mailers and Drove Grotesque Truck with Images of Fetuses is Back in Support of the NM GOP

Albuquerque- An email sent Monday from a New Mexico fundamentalist anti-choice group announced a campaign fundraiser supporting Michelle Garcia Holmes, GOP candidate for New Mexico’s First Congressional District, at the Bernalillo County Republican Welcome Center on Saturday, September 17th. This email was sent by Tara Shaver, who will be hosting the event with her husband, Bud Shaver. 

The Shavers are extremist anti-abortion protestors who moved to New Mexico solely to harass New Mexicans seeking to access health care. Their extremism includes:

• Working for Operation Rescue in Wichita, Kansas, the same year that an Operation Rescue follower murdered abortion provider Dr. George Tiller
• Moving to New Mexico at the behest of Operation Rescue to harass patients and doctors outside of clinics
• Harassing children in Albuquerque with graphic, doctored imagery on a large truck
• Sending grotesque illegal mailers to Albuquerque voters

The Shaver’s and their Protest ABQ group even instigated a confrontation with notorious Republican political consultant Jay McCleskey after protesting in front of his home. Even Republican Mayor Richard Berry denounced the inappropriate demonstrations and campaign tactics of the Shavers and called on them to stop, claiming that “our children and our schoolkids are being exposed and traumatized” by the Shavers. 

The Shavers’ extremism fits right in with Michelle Garcia Holmes, who supports banning all abortions nationwide without exceptions and has a troubling history harassing the University of New Mexico for providing abortion care.

Jessica Velasquez, Chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico says in response to the Shavers’ and their event with Michelle Garcia Holmes: 

“The New Mexican Republican Party has an open door policy for fanatical extremists, like Bud and Tara Shaver. Michelle Garcia Holmes consistently aligns herself with the most dangerous MAGA zealots in Republican Party and if elected, she promises to ban all abortions nationwide, without exception for rape or incest. That means that if an eleven-year old girl were raped by a family member, Michelle Garcia Holmes would force that child to give birth.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico calls on Steve Pearce’s New Mexico GOP and candidate Michelle Garcia Holmes to denounce the Shavers and cancel this event at the Bernalillo County Republican Party Headquarters and denounce their associations with the Shavers. New Mexicans reject extreme stances on abortion. Even Mayor Richard Berry and Jay McCleskey denounced the Shavers. Steve Pearce and Michelle Garcia Holmes should do the same.”

Throughout her public service career, Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury has never wavered from being a champion for abortion access and reproductive health. In the U.S. House, she cosponsored the Right to Contraception Act, Ensuring Access to Abortion Act to protect the constitutional right to travel across state lines to access health care, and the Women’s Health Protection Act  to codify abortion rights into law nationwide. As a State Representative in 2021, she voted to overturn New Mexico’s outdated state abortion ban, which preemptively protected abortion access in our state after the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

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