From Chaparral to the Capitol: Ben Luna’s Run for Change

In this week’s episode of the Chile Wire, we sit down with House District 53 candidate Ben Luna to talk about the story behind his campaign and what’s driving his run for office.

Ben shares his personal background, the experiences that shaped his values, and the path that led him to step into the political arena. Representing the community of Chaparral, New Mexico, he discusses the unique challenges facing the district and why he believes now is the time to bring new leadership and a strong voice to Santa Fe.

We also dive into his priorities, what he hopes to accomplish if elected, and how he plans to advocate for the people of District 53. From local concerns to broader policy goals, Ben lays out his vision for better representing and delivering results for his community.

Tune in for a candid conversation about leadership, service, and the future of Chaparral.

What is The Chile Wire?

Real News For Real New Mexicans.

Abe Baldonado: 00:11

The Chile Wire with Abe Baldonado. Hey, y'all. Welcome back to The Chile Wire. It is election season, and we're starting to bring in candidates. And this week, I'm honored to have a candidate from House District 53 down in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Ben Luna.

Abe Baldonado: 00:27

Ben, thank you for joining us on the

Ben Luna: 00:29

Chile Wire. Thank you for having me. I'm actually in Chaparral.

Abe Baldonado: 00:31

Chaparral. Chaparral.

Ben Luna: 00:32

But the district does include Chaparral in Las Cruces.

Abe Baldonado: 00:35

We'll just say Donna Anna.

Ben Luna: 00:36

Donna Anna.

Abe Baldonado: 00:37

Ben, it's a tradition here on the Chile Wire we have to ask you, red or green? Oof.

Ben Luna: 00:44

That's a tough question, man. If it's Chili Reinos, obviously, it has to be green. Right?

Abe Baldonado: 00:48

That's right.

Ben Luna: 00:49

But my dad makes some bomb red posole.

Abe Baldonado: 00:53

Alright.

Ben Luna: 00:53

Yeah. I'll have to bring some next time.

Abe Baldonado: 00:55

Yeah. I'm a red chili guy with posole too. Yeah. So that makes sense.

Ben Luna: 00:59

Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 00:59

It's tough though. Right in your backyard is hatch, so can't go wrong with some green chili too. So on the Chile Wire, you can't go wrong. Red, green, sometimes it's Christmas. So well, Ben, thank you so much for joining us.

Abe Baldonado: 01:12

Ben, I just wanna give you a moment to share a little bit about yourself, and then we'll transition into little bit more conversations. But for right now, I'd love for our viewers and, our listeners to just get to know Ben Luna.

Ben Luna: 01:25

Yeah. So, I'm married. Been married for eighteen years, have a daughter that's turning 17, a son who's turning 12, and a daughter who's she just turned six. And

Abe Baldonado: 01:37

So you have your hands full.

Ben Luna: 01:38

Yeah, got my hands full, but they are technically my workforce as well because we have a family business. We don't do child free child labor, but they do work, they do help, and that's how family businesses are structured, really. And so I have multiple family businesses. So the first one, my father and I, we actually started, and I made a post about it actually recently, and a lot of people were actually resonating with that that type of story. And, I started that by myself and then my kids as well, picking up dog poop and doing move out cleanings for houses.

Ben Luna: 02:13

And so that's both of them are hard work. Yeah. One's in the sun, one's disgusting, and the other one's in houses and covering a lot of square footage. And so, that's kind of how we started. And then once we got to a point where we were getting contracts and my dad was able to quit at White Sands Missile Range, I was like, you know what?

Ben Luna: 02:33

You go ahead and you go ahead and man the contracts because we get done by, like, seven or eight in the morning Yeah. And the rest of the day is yours. And so I told him he could quit. I went back to work as an electrician. I'm a journeyman electrician.

Ben Luna: 02:47

Been in the field for nineteen years. And I I love the career, but I saw a lot of older journeymen that were limping on the job site. Yeah. And it's all it's all they know, and it's all it's technically their their only source of income, and they've kind of stayed there, but I didn't want to limp around and, whenever I got older. And so I started this, plus it kept me home more.

Ben Luna: 03:11

I I I could take my kids to the park whenever I want. That was invaluable to me. That's you you couldn't pay me enough to to give that up, and and if I ever do have to give it up, like, for to be on the campaign trail or to show up for people throughout the state, that's that's what I'm giving up, and and I'm giving up a lot of crucial time.

Abe Baldonado: 03:29

Family first. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 03:30

Yeah. So so we started those businesses. Those are doing really well. We actually got a few more contracts recently, and we have to hire more people. So I have to man it until we hire those people.

Ben Luna: 03:43

But it it's been a great journey to kinda break the poverty cycle because because until you kind of kinda get out of that mindset, it's really a mindset. Like, my my family on the on both sides of the family because we we have grandparents. All my grandparents are from Mexico. My mom's from Mexico. And so we we had to break that poverty.

Ben Luna: 04:08

We have the work ethic Mhmm. But we just had to break that poverty mindset. And so we broke it. We became business owners. We saw what it takes to become a business owner.

Ben Luna: 04:18

And then even, those those tough times, you know, like when you're in government and you have all these legislators making policy with other people's money that never runs out in a sense, that's you don't have the the mindset of a small business owner. Like, you run out writing the checks. Exactly. If you if you run out of money, you don't you don't have money to move forward or or keep advancing and keep building. And so we felt all those growing pains.

Ben Luna: 04:45

A good example, actually, we going into a new year, you you have your taxes that you have to prepare for. Well, we lost, like, two of our contracts because, there were some clinics that got bought out, they just wanted to do things in house. And so right before taxes, we lost two of our first contracts, some of our best contracts. And so now you owe taxes and you'd have less to pay those taxes. You know what I mean?

Ben Luna: 05:10

And so going through those type of things, you know, I was able to help my father out of that situation. And it's not like it was his fault because all of our employees are mostly family, my brothers, my sister, you know, we we take care of our family first and then even people in our church. And so my dad chose to pay everybody, keep paying everybody until we got more contracts. And so we're kinda getting into that phase of of now things are gonna be smooth again and and stuff like that. But a lot of growing pains, but you gotta see what God is like too.

Ben Luna: 05:45

So during those highs and lows, God has been consistent. And, that's what I put in my post as well is, like, despite a lot of the bad policy in Santa Fe, God could still bless you. Absolutely. That's what I believe in most is God, His Word, and what He's able to do. But, you know, I started off in as an electrician, just just giving away seventy plus hours of of my week every every week.

Ben Luna: 06:13

No free time. No. Zero free time. And and to be honest, if I did that still, I I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing today. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 06:21

Yep.

Abe Baldonado: 06:21

Well, Ben, that that's a a magnificent story and I think that resonates a lot with New Mexico and I'm glad you brought up, you know, Santa Fe cash and checks that they're not writing. You know, they're not paying because I've always heard that, and I have family members who have started up their own business, have been in business for thirty, forty years now. And it's a different perspective when you have to write the checks. You have the staff. You have the folks that you're hiring and sometimes you're having to fire because of hard times or maybe find, you know, ways to to keep them on, but maybe pay them less.

Abe Baldonado: 06:58

Those are tough decisions and oftentimes, I think if you're not in those positions or you're not a business owner, you don't think about the policy decisions in Santa Fe that are driving a wedge between our entrepreneurs and our folks who are trying to start up businesses. And you're you're creating a lot of red tape for these folks. You're you're putting a lot of burdens on them that make them reconsider. Hey, do I really want to be a business owner because of all these things I have to do? And I think it's such a a refreshing perspective, and I love folks who run for office when they've started a business.

Abe Baldonado: 07:32

They've wrote checks. They've paid taxes. They know how the GRT works in New Mexico. And because we hear we hear New Mexico is not business friendly, and I think if you're not in business, you don't understand that. You're you're probably saying, it's not that bad.

Abe Baldonado: 07:46

I'm sure it's not that bad the way they make it seem. But until you're a business owner and you're trying to start up and you're trying to pay the bills, you can speak to that. You can say, hey. Yeah. No.

Abe Baldonado: 07:56

I've done it. It is hard. And there's a lot of tough decisions that have to be made. So Ben, thank you for sharing that. It sounds like a lot of that history and who you are today has now set you up to run for House District 53 because of the experiences you've had in business and just seeing your community and the opportunities that exist, but perhaps have not been harnessed just yet.

Ben Luna: 08:22

Yeah. And and coming into it with a business, you know, a small business owner mindset, when whenever you don't have the funds to do something, you either have to make it work or try again or whatever, but usually, you have to make it work. Yeah. There's no not making it There's no giving up. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 08:42

There's no not making it work. And so and if I was to hire somebody, and I like to take this perspective of our legislators because technically, they're elected officials and they're in charge of the purse of the state. And so if I was to hire somebody, they're using my money to, in a sense, run my company into the ground or just cause waste or miss spending. Why would I keep them another year? Why would I keep them another And two a good example is medical malpractice.

Ben Luna: 09:14

That was in 2019, and it took all the way until present day Oh, absolutely. 2026 to get fixed. And how many families have maybe not gotten health care? Like, that was crucial. You know, having to travel out of state, and we gave them our money to pass that bad legislation.

Ben Luna: 09:35

Yeah. And that's not the only thing that we've seen, and I've sat in the sessions where bad bills like HB seven, you heard Mhmm. Jody Hendrix talk about that. HB seven, I sat in those committees, and you would hear people in the minority party speak, you know, ask questions like, what about underage underage kids, and where's the parental consent part? And and you you hear all that.

Ben Luna: 10:02

They argue as as best as they can to to bring as much transparency and and and, in a sense, whatever form of justice they can within that committee, but then a party line vote happens as if it didn't matter what anybody said.

Abe Baldonado: 10:18

Yeah. The decision was already done before that committee even started. And I'm glad you brought that up, Ben, because even this year with medical malpractice, we saw that legislators oftentimes it's an election year. And you saw a lot of them try to to provide themselves cover. They voted no in committee or, proposed, poison pill amendments, and really tried to kill the legislation, but then on the house floor voted for it or on the senate floor voted for the bill and that hypocrisy.

Abe Baldonado: 10:49

And I think the people of New Mexico need to know what their politicians are doing because I I I don't respect wish washy people. Like, that that is very hard for me. And the games that I saw being played by some of these chairs like senator Joseph Cervantes, representative Elizabeth Thompson, senator Katie Duhigg, and others, you know, you're proposing amendments trying to kill this legislation. You vote against it, but then on the house floor because that's the only vote that really matters or people are really gonna see is the house floor vote. You vote yes and people you expect people to forget about what you tried to do to harm that legislation, and that's not okay.

Abe Baldonado: 11:28

And I believe, as you said, those representatives and senators, they work for us, the people. And we need to fire them. We need to hold them accountable for the decisions they're making. But we also need to educate our fellow New Mexicans about what they're doing, what type of little games they're playing Yeah. Because they're they're playing those games on your behalf, on your on your taxpayer dollars.

Abe Baldonado: 11:51

They're playing these games. And at the end of the day, they're the ones benefiting. Right? They're ones being supported by the trial attorneys.

Ben Luna: 11:57

Let me ask you this. If if I destroyed the way your industry ran and then asked for your money every year still and it took me from 2019 to 2026, would you still keep me on board with your company to keep money? No, absolutely not. And and that that's that's that should be the understanding that most New Mexicans have. Why would you give them more money?

Ben Luna: 12:20

Why would you give them more time? And why would you still keep the person within the the place of making those decisions Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 12:27

For for your life? Yeah. I often think a lot of it's educational and lot of it is, Ben, we've had these conversations just offline about, you know, our our poverty in New Mexico and I think a lot of times, New Mexicans just aren't unaware. Right? And I think we talked about media coverage oftentimes doesn't highlight a lot of these behind the scenes issues or what you've seen like unless you're in the committee room and you're seeing what's happening, you know, you're you're probably not going to be aware or you're not going to have someone in your circle to say, hey, unless you do have a Ben Luna that's your friend and says, hey, let me tell you what I saw today in committee.

Abe Baldonado: 13:08

If you don't have that around, you're just business as usual. Hey, I assume they're doing the best they can, but are they?

Ben Luna: 13:16

Yeah. No. That's a good point. And I attended a meeting with Sarah Smith and Jennifer Jones Mhmm. Representative Jennifer Jones.

Ben Luna: 13:24

And Sarah Smith literally broke down the entire legislative session in in normal people's terms. Like, I understood it. People there can understand it. And I think she's gonna produce a YouTube version of it as well. Oh, wonderful.

Ben Luna: 13:37

But she was saying that, like, some of these things are are being lost in committee. Like, certain committees are known for, like, that's where your bills go to die. Yeah. You know, like, that shouldn't be the case. And so I I do wanna give, you know, the the Republican Party credit for their social media this year.

Ben Luna: 13:55

Like, they're this year, it's it's taken a step up, man.

Abe Baldonado: 13:58

Yeah. They're they're not letting anything anything get hidden.

Ben Luna: 14:01

Yeah. No. And and that I've told people that before too because I saw the power of media. Whenever, like, you know, a lot of things were happening and the media wasn't on our side Mhmm. We had to become the media at that time.

Ben Luna: 14:14

And that's kind of what started me as well in the political journey. All these times, like, during the lockdowns when we we couldn't have our businesses open, 40% of the businesses closed, and then OSHA was being sent to certain businesses that were choosing to stay open Yeah. Like, to try to shut them down, find them. And so during that whole time, I saw the power of media, and I posted this one video, did this interview. It was at a rally or a protest.

Ben Luna: 14:41

And, I saw that it within a matter of minutes, it got 40,000 views. And so I kept kind of building on that. All I had was a iPhone X and a $100 Gimbal. But I became known as somebody who's going to show up every time. Like, hey, hey, we need you here.

Ben Luna: 14:59

We could use your help here, and and you didn't have to ask me twice. I would just, alright. Let me cover the business, make sure it's covered, and then I'll go. Yeah. And that was my dad covered.

Ben Luna: 15:08

So I was like, hey, dad. But today,

Abe Baldonado: 15:10

we we got Ben all the way from Chaparral today

Ben Luna: 15:12

Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 15:13

Up here today. So hopefully your dad's running it and taking care

Ben Luna: 15:16

of it while he's Yeah. We have more employees now, but but yeah. So I saw the power of media, and then I became known for showing up and doing, like, recap photos, photo photo recaps as well. And so I I was asked to take a tour, and this kinda goes more into, like, that government creating policy without the consent of people. Amy Barella, she was the county commissioner at the time.

Ben Luna: 15:41

She was like, hey. There's these ranchers in Otero County. They they're taking a tour. Congresswoman, Yvette Harral, the com all the commissioners are there, the US Forest Service. I believe I don't know if it was the New Mexico Game and Fish, but I think the New Mexico State Ag Department or something.

Ben Luna: 15:59

They took a tour, and so I showed up with my iPhone 10, a $100 gimbal, went toured with them, walked everywhere with them that their water is being fenced off. And anybody would agree that if you buy land and you get the water rights, your water should never be fenced off for And so that's what we were trying to show is that the US Forest Service had installed the steel piping to block out all cattle, but in order for the cows to get to water, they had to walk miles around that fence because it's just only fencing off a stream. And so they had to walk miles around that fence. So we took a a tour there, even on some of the forage where the ranchers were getting blamed for overgrazing, but there was no cow patties. There was only elk droppings throughout the entire thing.

Ben Luna: 16:49

And so we we produced a documentary. We included that tour, and that family has gone through that battle, multiple millions in in legal fees, and they're still in it. They they they're they might have a a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel right now, because the DOJ is actually hearing their their case and and stuff like that. But that that's just one family that is going through the overreach of one agency. I I now interview about four four different ranchers throughout the state of New Mexico, and we can't necessarily do all the filming because they're in the middle of legal issues.

Ben Luna: 17:33

Yeah. You know, they can't release too much information or they can't, in a sense, go on the offense.

Abe Baldonado: 17:37

Yeah. Discuss the

Ben Luna: 17:37

case. Exactly. Yeah. And so all of them are ongoing. And what I noticed is that when you you're willing to speak up on behalf of independent industry owners, somebody else will see and, like, they'll they'll reach out to you.

Ben Luna: 17:50

Hey. I'm going through the same thing. You don't know how many people, not just New Mexico, but nationwide, have responded just to that documentary. And so we we posted it on Legxit. Legxit is Latinos exiting the Democrat Party.

Ben Luna: 18:04

They're now Legxit News on Instagram. But, we posted it on there to give them the most expression. Like, hey. Let's get national eyes on this issue. They instantly got, seen.

Ben Luna: 18:16

People at the very top of the federal level of the US Forest Service reached out as well. And so I saw the power of media, and that was just one industry, one family that we helped. And in the food industry, like, I've worked in the food industry as well, and they say that if you have one complaint about your like, whether there was, like, glass in the product or whatever, there's probably thousands more Right. That have gone through it and just haven't reached out. And and so we became a voice we became a representative before we even had a a position, and that's really what kinda started my journey.

Abe Baldonado: 18:54

Absolutely. And, you know, one voice is powerful, But when you start with one voice and you get hundreds of voices, then it really becomes a movement and, I think that is amazing to hear. I I kinda wanna go back because I wanna highlight this for our listeners and our viewers. 40% of businesses shut down

Ben Luna: 19:14

Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 19:14

After COVID.

Ben Luna: 19:15

Yeah. And I think it might be more.

Abe Baldonado: 19:16

It might be. I think we even still see some of those business even closing today, so I'm sure that number continues to go up just because even here in Albuquerque, a lot of staples have closed down because I think they thought that, hey, maybe we can catch up and it just became too hard and, we've lost a lot of good establishments here. But I'm glad you brought it up because people shouldn't forget that because it wasn't that long ago that we had administrations telling us to stay home while they were out shopping and doing things, you know, and it's like, hey, y'all, like, call that out. Like, it's okay. Like, we should always call that out, when you have government telling you what to do, but they're not leading by example.

Abe Baldonado: 19:59

And as far as our our ranchers go, I think that's amazing work. And I think oftentimes those are stories we don't hear about. And I I know we had talked about, the impact that these, legal proceedings have on our farmers and ranchers because at the end of the day, they're going up against government who has millions of dollars to spend on legal fees at the expense of taxpayers. So they have a a revolving door of money coming in, from taxpayers to continue fighting these small mom and pop ranchers and farmers, who are just trying to make their living. And, you know, we talked about the the mental health impact that has on them as well offline and Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 20:42

No. That I think is of great importance.

Ben Luna: 20:45

Yeah. So taking the the approach where I have no knowledge of the ranching industry, I was asking the dumb questions, which is fine. I don't mind doing that.

Abe Baldonado: 20:54

You You have to ask. That's the only way you learn. Right? Like, hey, I'm not an expert in this. I have to ask.

Abe Baldonado: 21:00

You know, same with medical malpractice. You know, it started one doctor talking about it. Next thing you know, other doctors are talking about it, and I had to ask the questions as well, you know, because I'm not a doctor. I I I don't know the the medical terminology, the the medical issues. And so it's like, hey, break it down for me in layman's terms so I understand this.

Ben Luna: 21:20

Yeah. So, you know, I I was taught pretty much like beginner level issues that they were going through, and and I believe Kelly and others have told me that the ranching industry has a high suicide rate Mhmm. Because they're they're losing their property. And Kelly's mentioned it before that the only way they've made it so far is that they have God on their side. Like, you have to be made different, and you have to have something more than just things on this earth that keep you going.

Ben Luna: 21:50

Yeah. Especially when you're when you know you're losing. So that I think that forage was, like, over a thousand head of cattle. Now they're at, like, a 150, I believe. Wow.

Ben Luna: 21:59

That's a significant drop. And so when you when you buy a property, and this is what she mentions, when you buy the a forage, you get the water rights, but then you also have, like, an amount of head of cattle that you're told you could run, and that's why you buy the property. Yeah. But then all of a sudden, your your your investment, what what you were investing in is now being told you you can't have

Abe Baldonado: 22:22

The government say, hey, you can't do this.

Ben Luna: 22:23

Exactly. And so there there was people, like, during the lockdown, there was people during the lockdown that actually, you know, did take their life, unfortunately, because they they also lost what they were wanting to pass on. They if you think of a a business owner, and I hate to use the term small business because as a as a business owner, you're investing everything you have. Yeah. You're you're You're putting it all on the line.

Ben Luna: 22:46

Exactly. Like, you're you're putting it all on the line. You're, like, you're in a sense making a decision. I'm not going back to what I've done before. I'm gonna make this work, and you're putting in your own money.

Ben Luna: 22:57

You're putting in probably sometimes food that was supposed to be on your children's table has

Abe Baldonado: 23:01

to go hours a week.

Ben Luna: 23:03

Yeah. And it's so like that type of investment happens every day, year round, and people lost their business. And so that's not that's not just one industry. Like, we saw that it was a pattern. It's a pattern not just in the legislature, but it's a pattern within people who get in these these, agency roles.

Ben Luna: 23:24

And when they create the policy without the consent of people in the field, I like to use an example of when I was an electrician. In the field, you get these prints, and they say, run a conduit from here to there. Well, they don't they don't see that if you're in the field, that conduit runs outside the wall and through the duct. You know what I mean? It's like Yeah.

Ben Luna: 23:46

You gotta you gotta be their boots on the ground. You gotta know what's going on in the field. What are they going through? Whose fault is it really? And how can you how can you, in a sense, come to an agreement?

Ben Luna: 23:59

And that was another issue, is the family wasn't even being brought to the table. Yeah. Like, it took Representative Harlan Vincent to actually make them come to the table and hear what this family is going through, but still, the what that guy said on the tour, and it's the approach a lot of people take, is like, let's let the courts decide. Let's let it go there because, one, that that rids them of a responsibility. Their their name is technically not attached to the to the harm caused, and and, yeah, the courts have millions.

Ben Luna: 24:34

Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 24:35

Yeah. The courts and and the government agencies have millions. Yeah. It's like, okay. Hey.

Abe Baldonado: 24:39

We'll let the courts decide and you're gonna have to put up the capital to to make your case against us. Mhmm. We have more money than you.

Ben Luna: 24:46

Yeah. And so that that's really, like, why I will always be in this fight and why I have been in the fight since. It's like when you know your neighbors are going through that, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna it happen. Yeah. And and I think that's there's there's a shortage of that in our nation where a lot of good people don't wanna do anything because good people are penalized now.

Ben Luna: 25:08

Yeah. And speak out. Yep. If you speak out or you've if you defend somebody, that becomes penalized. Like, we've seen a lot of people held accountable even in Las Cruces, an an officer, he's gonna he's another, documentary, him and his family.

Ben Luna: 25:22

He's going through something where the attorney general is attacking him for defend him protecting his partner. And if you watch the trailer and even the judge mentioned, like, he was lawful to do what he had to do. Well, when our officers protect their community and they get shamed and penalized for it, then crime does go up. Yeah. Crime goes up often.

Abe Baldonado: 25:46

And we lose law enforcement. Yeah. We start saying, hey, you know what? If you wanted a future in law enforcement, you probably don't want it now because you're gonna be scrutinized and you're gonna be penalized for protecting the citizens that you take an oath to defend and protect. Mhmm.

Abe Baldonado: 26:03

And it makes it and again, man, trial attorney state, we see that running wild. It's just we saw with the civil rights act. It wasn't about civil rights. It was an opportunity to sue police officers when they make a judgment call in the field to strip them of qualified immunity and go after their personal assets and their entire livelihood. And it's not like they make a lot of money as it is defending, and protecting our streets.

Abe Baldonado: 26:32

And now we have policymakers that say, hey, no, we want to make it a lucrative state to sue you, sue your department, and take you for everything you got.

Ben Luna: 26:40

Yeah. So another industry you wouldn't know was an industry is the family court industry. It's a 100 I believe it's a $128,000,000,000 industry and judges retire off the money that parents are forced to pay. Wow. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 26:52

That's that's a we've interviewed, families. And so I'm gonna kinda loop h b seven, that that bill, because one of the things that was a worry to us is that people would be able to go to the school and give your child the procedure without your knowledge, and we kept asking that question. And we just asked the question like, hey, there's nothing protecting the child or the parental rights Yeah. Within this bill. And so the family court's issue, CYFD, these child protective services organizations or entities, they do that already.

Ben Luna: 27:30

They could do it off of fabricated evidence. I interviewed a mother in Socorro. That was exactly what happened. Fabricated evidence. The the the spouse weaponized CYFD against her.

Ben Luna: 27:43

She got a what what do you call it? Some kind of visit? Well well wellness checkers. Wellness check. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 27:49

Yeah. So she got that, but then based on the husband's accusations, they took her children and they labeled her, and they she had to clear her name in the courts.

Abe Baldonado: 28:00

Yeah. Talk about defamation.

Ben Luna: 28:02

Exactly. So she had to clear her name in the courts. Then finally, it was it was, they came to the agreement that she wasn't the abusive spouse. It was actually the one who was making the accusations. And so she got her kids back, but then that guy's child was put in the ICU because he was the original problem.

Ben Luna: 28:22

Yeah. And so that if if that's able to happen in CYFD of New Mexico, and I interviewed her months ago, not not that long ago, Like, I think this year or no. The no. Last year. So I interviewed her months ago.

Ben Luna: 28:36

That happened recently. And, if that's able to happen in New Mexico, and I've already interviewed other moms in other states that have gone through the same thing, lost all they had, spent millions, the same exact thing. Somebody's retiring, somebody's profiting, and families are being broken.

Abe Baldonado: 28:53

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting you bring that up because I've heard similar stories from individuals talking about the ERPA laws in New Mexico, the extreme risk protection orders

Ben Luna: 29:04

Mhmm.

Abe Baldonado: 29:04

And where they're in a domestic violence situation. And the worry is now that the abuser can say, hey, they're threatening me. Strip away potentially the woman's right to carry and bear arms. Strip her away if she has a weapon, the officers take it away and now the abuser knows that she cannot protect herself. And sometimes those loopholes are being used against women who are in domestic violent relationships and that's also a concern as well is that, hey, they go accuse me, officers come to my door, they confiscate my weapons to defend myself, but I'm actually the one being abused.

Abe Baldonado: 29:46

Yeah. And it's just a very dangerous situation. And and I think in New Mexico and especially our policymakers who support these Erbo laws, they don't they they kinda tune out those stories, and those folks have spoken. They've gone to committee hearings and said, hey. I am a victim of domestic violence, and you're putting me in a very dangerous situation.

Ben Luna: 30:07

Yeah. So I did a roundtable documentary with New Mexico Shooting Sports Association. I believe Calibrers and somebody else. I can't remember. Oh, New Mexico Firearms Industry.

Ben Luna: 30:20

That's on YouTube still. And I think it was Josh Grossglose. He actually told me that I think it was in Santa Fe. I can't remember the city, but it was it was in New Mexico that a kid at school, you know, he didn't ask this girl on a date or to prom or something like that. And so she made up a a lie about him that he brought a gun to school or something like that, and then they confiscated the dad's guns.

Ben Luna: 30:47

And then then there was, like, the whole, you know, the legal issue, and and they were having to battle that. But based on the lie and then later on, finally, somebody turned in that girl for lying and they still hadn't got their weapons back. Wow. And that was all based on on hearsay. Mhmm.

Ben Luna: 31:03

You know, fabricated evidence.

Abe Baldonado: 31:04

Well, and also, you've now ruined their character. Yep. You know, and it's not only that student, but the father, the family, you know, their reputation now is like, oh, they're giving access to their their guns to their kids and, you know, it's hard to bring that back. Even when the slate has been wiped clean, the government or media outlets don't go and say, hey, you know what? Actually, we're gonna retract this story and we're gonna make their person names good.

Abe Baldonado: 31:31

They don't do that. They don't do that.

Ben Luna: 31:33

One thing I always say is you've never heard a politician apologize. No. And you've never heard the media apologize ever. Yeah. And that that's why I'm not a I'm not a either.

Ben Luna: 31:41

I'm not a politician and I'm not in the media for that for that, purpose. I've apologized many times. Like, that's that's part of being a business owner. That's part of building relationships.

Abe Baldonado: 31:52

That's part of being a human Sometimes we're wrong. Like Sometimes we're wrong. Like And just say sorry, and my wife will tell you, babe, I'm wrong sometimes. Right?

Ben Luna: 32:00

I'm wrong. Yeah. I think You know? This year, my wife has actually kept track of how many times she's wrong.

Abe Baldonado: 32:06

So Oh, she's keeping count now. That's awesome. Don't don't say that too loud. My my wife might hear this and be like, I'm gonna start keeping track. Right.

Abe Baldonado: 32:12

How many times he says he's wrong. No. It's just it's a human thing. Right? We we have a human connection and we do make mistakes.

Abe Baldonado: 32:19

That's part of being human. That that's what makes life beautiful is that we live, we learn, we make mistakes. But let's hold ourselves accountable that if we're wrong, let's say, hey, we're wrong. Our voices matter and I think we can take that back. You know, we can fix the systems if we just engage.

Abe Baldonado: 32:37

Like, hey, Ben and Abe had this great conversation about this. I'm gonna start learning about the family courts. I I I want to do my own research and figure out, oh, hey, this is a problem. I'm going start speaking out about this. And hopefully, they add a group of friends, you know, because that's the only way we receive real change and we start paying attention to our, elected officials and saying, hey, so and so, you're voting on, the green amendment or the clear horizons.

Abe Baldonado: 33:06

That's problematic for me because I've done research now. You are trying to kill business in New Mexico. You are just trying to ensure that we remain a poverty state and that we rely on government assistance and we just keep a stranglehold of people on our welfare programs and not lifting them up and giving them opportunity to have again, you know, not just even small business, just business in general. Mhmm. That is prosperity.

Abe Baldonado: 33:31

It takes someone Ben, hey, I'm opening up businesses. Guess what? I'm hiring people now. I'm giving them the hand up. I'm lifting them up.

Abe Baldonado: 33:39

I'm giving them a job and hopefully, they'll learn for me. They'll learn a skill here and maybe they'll go up in their own business. And even if they're a competitor with me, that's good. Competition is good. It'll drive me to be better as a business and hopefully drive them to be a better business person as well.

Abe Baldonado: 33:56

But there's a lot of great opportunity there and, you know, but I do see where we do have flaws in in our government and we have bad actors and we have bad leadership. And, you know, again, we need to hold folks accountable and whether you're on the right or you're the left, if you're wrong, you're wrong. And, you know, just we need that accountability to say, hey, you know what? We were wrong. Hey.

Abe Baldonado: 34:17

We were wrong on medical malpractice.

Ben Luna: 34:20

Yeah. True wrong. True truth and sunlight. Yeah. Those are those are, like, the best disinfectants.

Ben Luna: 34:26

Absolutely. And and not not only that, what's kind of fortunate about, like, all these, you know, crazy times that we've gone through in New Mexico, it's been a while since 2020. But I'll

Abe Baldonado: 34:37

tell you, man. It even goes back further to 2020. It does. For me, it goes back to 09/11. I mean, man, our our generation has

Ben Luna: 34:45

Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 34:45

Seen it all.

Ben Luna: 34:46

Well, that's my introduction technically. Like like, I I only started in 2020. And same thing with Sarah Smith. I don't know if you know her, but she she would be great to interview. But

Abe Baldonado: 34:55

Yeah. We've, Sarah Smith has been a great ally and a great resource on the curriculum and the books that are in our schools, bringing awareness and attention to that, especially in Dona Ana County. I know she's done a lot of work to expose the type of literature that we're finding that's not really educational. It's, you know, really pushing a indoctrination of a narrative there. Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 35:18

And it's not really tied to, you know, English lit or, you know, your traditional Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, whatever it may be. There is some major concerns there about the types of books that are being offered in our schools. Yeah. She has been a great advocate for that.

Ben Luna: 35:36

Yeah. No. She's one one thing we've seen is as as you choose to speak up, you you bring like minded people as well. Mhmm. Or a good example is at that same meeting that she spoke at, there was two mothers there, but there was three total that pulled their kids out of Santa Fe public schools Yeah.

Ben Luna: 35:56

Because something was something was still happening. So and that was recent. So they're doubling down. But the lockdown, it brought a lot of good people together. In a sense, they kind of brought the a team together.

Ben Luna: 36:09

Yeah. Like, people that are not wanting to sit back and and people that are business owners, people I mean, Sarah Smith, NASA engineer Yeah. Now on on our side. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Abe Baldonado: 36:20

Talk about no kings, right? Right. Like, hey, no kings.

Ben Luna: 36:23

What what's cool about her and and other people we work with, for the legislative sessions, we'll send about we'll send over a million responses, like emails, text messages to our legislators telling them what we think, what we believe, what we don't want. And and it's effective. Like, it's growing and it's effective. And I I think that's probably one of the biggest blessings is a lot of people have been brought together. Yeah.

Ben Luna: 36:46

And I think more people are

Abe Baldonado: 36:47

gonna be brought together even just, you know, the reasons we exist on the Chile Wire was to give people an outlet to learn more about what's happening in New Mexico, New Mexico politics, at the Roundhouse, and how policy is shaping New Mexico's present and future right now. And getting folks involved to just tell them, hey, wake up New Mexico. Some stuff's happening. And oftentimes, myself included, we're we're naive sometimes that we don't wanna believe that the worst things are happening around us.

Ben Luna: 37:18

Right.

Abe Baldonado: 37:18

But in fact, they are. And oftentimes, it just takes getting engaged with folks, you know, like Sarah and others who have shared their experiences, but also shown the data and the proof Right. Of what has been found. And the truth of, Abe, here's a list of the books. Look up the books.

Abe Baldonado: 37:39

See what they are. And then you open them and you're like, yeah, this isn't educational. Yeah. This isn't It's bad. I I can't tie this to science.

Abe Baldonado: 37:48

I can't tie it to a math course. I can't tie it to a social studies course. And those are the examples of bringing truth to light and educating fellow other New Mexicans to get involved and say, hey, do you know what's happening in your community? Do you know what's happening around you? Whether it's in the private sector or in your own public schools where you believe that your children should be safe, but are they?

Abe Baldonado: 38:11

Or are there bad actors in there pushing agendas that maybe don't align with your family values or how you wish to raise your kids? And, you know, we see that the government is now overreaching now with universal childcare and saying, give us more time with your child. And parents should be aware of that. Like, hey, they're they're trying to remove you as the family unit and structure to say, hey, give us more time with you and let strangers raise your kids, not you as a parent. And I understand that families require access to childcare and that it could be very expensive and, you know, there should be opportunities for folks who are living below the poverty line to have access to some sort of daycare and and childcare.

Abe Baldonado: 38:59

But when you start giving it to folks making well over 6 figures and doing really well in life and you start subsidizing that, that becomes problematic with me and it it's not sustainable. And I think those are the conversations that we need to have with that. A lot of these decisions financially are not sustainable. And they may be well intentioned, but they're not sustainable. And they're not good for community.

Abe Baldonado: 39:21

It's not good for the culture of New Mexico. And what we believe here in New Mexico is that we are family. Right? Like, familia is everything. And, we we have to keep that intact because that's what makes New Mexico very unique is that we're all about family first.

Ben Luna: 39:37

No. That's that's the truth. I I think, you know, as far as, like, going into the legislature and changing things, one thing we do need is numbers. Mhmm. And and I think getting people out to vote and getting people informed, that's that's step one.

Ben Luna: 39:53

The media side does help, but being boots on the ground is there's no way to beat the old traditional approach, door knocking Yeah. And and meeting people. And so Having conversations. Yeah. Having conversations.

Ben Luna: 40:04

Like, I I don't mind talking to anybody. I actually talked to, an independent probably like two weeks ago. He's a teacher at, Oregon Maui in, and, he lost his coaching job because he was too stern. A coaching job. And so he

Abe Baldonado: 40:20

That's the world we live in right now. You can't be disciplined. You can't be stern.

Ben Luna: 40:23

Oh, my word.

Abe Baldonado: 40:24

Yeah. You're you're a bad coach if you how dare you discipline your your, players.

Ben Luna: 40:30

Yeah. So, like, he he lost that, and and he he brought up a really, really good point because not only, like, are these bad things in the schools, but they're they're he said when you create an exit for people every time something hard happens, they're never gonna learn. Yeah. Like, as a business owner, oh my word.

Abe Baldonado: 40:48

Yeah. Perseverance.

Ben Luna: 40:49

You need perseverance. Yeah. And so when you create a society like that, like and that's literally in all our schools. The the equity issue is being kind of misused, and and and our empathy is kind of being weaponized against us in a sense to to have these policies take place. But, no, everybody that I'm talking to, they're seeing things that need to change, and and they're actually excited that somebody young is running.

Ben Luna: 41:15

Yeah. It's Yeah. Need younger people to run, please. It's rare. It's rare.

Ben Luna: 41:20

If you go to a lot of these meetings that you're seeing

Abe Baldonado: 41:23

I've definitely seen it, Ben. And I think a lot of times, it's just the frustration that holds younger folks back from getting involved and and I've heard it many times even from former students of mine when I taught that they just believe my voice doesn't matter and it's it's really trying to push that, no, your voice does matter. You have to use it though. And yes, there there's gonna be some hard times and it may fall on deaf ears sometimes, but you have to continue talking about it. If it matters to you, talk about it.

Ben Luna: 41:53

Yeah. No. And and that I'm a good example. Like, if I never spoke up once starting in 2020, and all I did was was speak about how there was actually black American heroes in our American history Mhmm. That nobody knows about.

Ben Luna: 42:08

Like, the the the Revolutionary War was ended by James Armstead, I believe Yeah. Who who was a black American hero. And so nobody knows about that. Not taught in school, and then you start to think America's racist, and and there's all these systemic issues. And and so if I had not started teaching myself American history because I didn't learn it.

Ben Luna: 42:30

Yeah. I didn't learn it in public school. I had to teach myself, so

Abe Baldonado: 42:33

Well, they're not teaching it now. I'll tell you, civics has been one of the big ones now where you just see the exploitation of younger generations who do not understand the the foundations of The United States and our constitution and what our founding fathers believed in our republic. A lot of those thoughts are are gone today or they're being stripped away by, again, forces like you said who wanna undermine American values and what The United States stands for globally.

Ben Luna: 43:08

Here's a here's a fun topic, and I think I have a video posted on it. The NRA was founded to not only arm the newly freed slaves, but to train them to defend themselves. And I believe, there there was a a policy that was passed to keep, to to keep the newly freed slaves from voting because then they would be able to keep and bear arms as citizens. And so I have a video, and it's not it's not me saying it. And and that's really all of my content.

Ben Luna: 43:39

It's never me talking. Yeah. It's just me listening to to other people. But, yeah, like, when when you know the NRA was founded based on that and is being fought so heavily, like, in our state and in other states, it's crazy, man, that that we're not taught. New Mexico's Shooting Sports Association said that the shooting sports is actually has the less injuries out of all sports.

Ben Luna: 44:03

Oh, yes.

Abe Baldonado: 44:04

Because you learn responsibility. Mhmm. You learn even growing up, you know, hunting with my father and my family. You respect the weapon, you know. You are trained to be cautious and be safe and there are safety lessons that come from that.

Abe Baldonado: 44:22

And so it doesn't surprise me. It may surprise others. It might surprise some of our more progressive friends that think guns walk around killing people. But it really comes down to the user, you know, and how they're trained. And again, if you're a criminal, you're a criminal and if you want access to a weapon, you can get it.

Abe Baldonado: 44:40

And we see in in our streets, 17 year olds with guns. They're not going to gun stores, but we're telling the gun stores that they're the bad guys in this situation. But a 17 year old can't walk in and buy a handgun at a gun shop. So where are they getting it? They're getting it on the streets.

Abe Baldonado: 44:57

They're getting it on the black market. And we have to have those conversations. And and to your point, you know, the whole second amendment, how many Americans know why that was put in place, the second amendment? Right? Like to protect yourself from your own government that gets too big at some point or maybe becomes tyrannical and you're like, hey, no.

Abe Baldonado: 45:18

You're you're creating tyranny now against the American people. We're gonna defend ourselves. Yeah. And we defend ourselves from foreign nations as well. That's what makes America that's why you have not seen outside of the civil war.

Abe Baldonado: 45:32

You have not seen foreign countries attack us on United States line because not only you're not fighting just the our armed forces, you're fighting just our regular citizens. So you're talking about a whole country of folks who have been given the privilege and again, it is a privilege and that privilege should be taken away if you're a criminal and you are not responsible with it. It is a privilege. It should be taken away. But it's also a privilege that you should have to defend yourself from your own government, also foreign governments as well and, you know, educate it.

Abe Baldonado: 46:04

And they don't teach that to kids now. They, you know, now we see it's like, no guns are bad. The second amendment, it's not good for you. You know, government should get rid of them. And it's like, okay.

Abe Baldonado: 46:12

But do you know what they're taking away from you at that point?

Ben Luna: 46:15

Yeah. And and so, like, the if you go into history, James Otis, he was actually the founding father of our founding fathers. And he made an argument because Britain was able to go to your house, search for something. They didn't have a warrant, but they searched for something. And then if they deemed something was it was unlawful or illegal How fascist.

Ben Luna: 46:37

Then exactly. Then they would go to the judge, then they would get the warrant, then they would write the thing, then they would seize your property. And so that's where you have the castle doctrine came into play because James Otis said, if a man's home is not his castle, then he is not free. Yeah. And and and so right after that meeting, he he was arguing against this.

Ben Luna: 47:00

But, you know, during the lockdowns, we we had people show up to our houses shutting down birthday parties and and

Abe Baldonado: 47:05

Even your business. Yep. You're building that you own your business. Yep. I mean, it is yours.

Abe Baldonado: 47:10

They're showing up to try to shut you down because you're trying to operate and make your living. But hey, you know what? You're not adhering to our rules that we set in place. How dare you try to

Ben Luna: 47:21

keep your business afloat? And so legislators that go into these offices, if they have no knowledge of our American history, they have no knowledge of our constitution, no knowledge of the Bill of Rights, or or the the original intent because I kinda get weary hearing about somebody's interpretation. Yeah. You know what I mean? And that's that's really what that US Forest Service guy said.

Ben Luna: 47:45

Well, I guess that's up to the court's interpretation. It's like, no. It goes back to the original intent of the constitution. And so when you have people that have no knowledge of all those things, no knowledge of the the great parts of our American history, the great black American heroes and and many heroes since then, and they go into the legislature and produce policy based on what they have been taught and they have been taught a different type of America. They in in schools today, those those books, they have a different image of what America is or was.

Abe Baldonado: 48:20

Or they'll tell you that America is systemically racist.

Ben Luna: 48:24

Mhmm.

Abe Baldonado: 48:24

And if you are Hispanic, black, whatever, the system is up against you and that that's contrary to everything I was taught. Right. But that is what is being taught now. And speaking of constitutionality, your your neighbor, senator Joseph Cervantes, this legislative session, he's an attorney Perfect example. Goes on the record says, this is unconstitutional but I'm gonna vote for it anyway.

Abe Baldonado: 48:50

Perfect. So you're undermining your oath. You're acknowledging that this is not constitutional, yet you're still gonna vote for it either way. Yeah. Like, come on.

Ben Luna: 49:01

And and that's how policy is really created. Mhmm. Like, if you go back and look at some of the minutes, look at some of these committees and see how how it's voting, like, especially some of the bad laws, h b seven, s b, I think, one eighty, all the ones that Jody brought up, you you'll see the same exact pattern. They know it's not right. They know know it's unconstitutional.

Ben Luna: 49:22

They know it's violating people and causing good people to become criminals by that new law and they pass it anyways. Yeah.

Abe Baldonado: 49:29

They pass it anyway. It is just unfortunate thing and I always tell people, I don't defend people. I defend policy. Mhmm. I will I will tell you, hey, this is a good policy and I'm not afraid to give credit where it's due whether it's Trump or whoever.

Abe Baldonado: 49:45

If it's a good policy and I believe in it and I know why I think it's a good policy, I will share that with you. And I will also tell you the same for a bad policy. Right. That, hey, these are bad policies people like pay attention to the policy. And I think too many times folks get caught up on the individuals rather than what are they saying?

Abe Baldonado: 50:05

Pay attention to that. What are they saying? Not that he seems like a nice guy, know, Joseph Vervante, he's a lawyer, he's successful. Okay. But did you also know that he said and pay this bill is unconstitutional but I'm a vote for it anyway?

Ben Luna: 50:17

Right.

Abe Baldonado: 50:17

Like that to me is more important. Definitely. Like, okay. Joseph Cervantes, you were nice to me once. Cool.

Abe Baldonado: 50:24

But Yeah. You just literally undermine your entire oath for the office that you took. Ben, I I greatly appreciate it if folks wanna learn more or reach out to you, where can they do that?

Ben Luna: 50:36

Yeah. So they could go to ben luna four n m. It's f o r, not the number four. Ben luna four n m dot com. And they'll see the campaign.

Ben Luna: 50:45

My socials are connected to that, I believe. And then, yeah, I would actually even take a a trip to Rumble, one name, one banner, all spelled out. That's where we have a lot of these past interviews. We did a grassroots convention in Rio Doce where we had New Mexico Truckers Association, The Rio Grande Foundation, New Mexico shooting sports. We had them all up there, livestream the event, and and all that's out there.

Ben Luna: 51:13

It's not me talking. Yeah. And that that's that's what I like to get people to know because my opponent said I was spreading conspiracy theories or something in 2024. When I do less of the talking, I do most of the listening.

Abe Baldonado: 51:25

Yeah. I film and I listen. Exactly. I ask the folks, the experts, the folks who are being impacted the questions, and they answer.

Ben Luna: 51:32

Yeah. I know. And I ask the dumb questions, so I can't take credit for any of the content that's out And

Abe Baldonado: 51:38

Ben, if you give us a link, could attach this to this podcast as well for folks to learn more and also see those documentaries. And Ben, just from us here at The Chile Wire, thank you for taking that leap to run for office. We know it's not something that comes easy on you, your family, and so may God bless you guys as you enter this campaign season. And we look forward to seeing your campaign in full throttle this year in 2026, and we wish you best of luck. Thank you.

Abe Baldonado: 52:03

Appreciate y'all. My pleasure. Thank you. That's it for this week's Chile Wire y'all. Tune in next time, and have a good one.