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Real News For Real New Mexicans.
The Chile Wire with Abe Baldonado. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Chile Wire. This week, I have as my guest Brenda Olson.
Abe Baldonado:She is a candidate for House District 28. She's taken some time off the campaign trail to stop by The Chile Wire studio to chat with us about her candidacy and share a little bit more about who she is and what inspired her to run for office. And Brenda, thank you so much for stopping by the Chile Wire today.
Brenda Olson:Thank you, Abe.
Abe Baldonado:Brenda, would love an opportunity for you to just share a little bit about yourself. You jumped into politics, but reading your bio, you're a retired Air Force veteran. Thank you for your service. And then you also worked for USDA Forest Service. So seems like you have a wealth of experience, government experience, military experience, which I think will make you a fantastic candidate.
Abe Baldonado:I'm sure there's a lot of folks that live in your district that resonate either with the air force piece who came to work here at Kirtland Air Force Base, stayed here, or current active duty members, and then also some folks who currently work for our federal and state governments.
Brenda Olson:Oh, absolutely. There's other this is a huge base out here, so that's one of the reasons I chose to move here when I retired because to have, you know, I earned all kinds of benefits and I wanted to have access to those. And the familiarity of being around in Air Force Base, the commissary and the hospital and just the familiar camaraderie there. I went in the Air Force when I was 20 years old, and they put me in a career field. At that time, they were just opening up career fields to women.
Brenda Olson:And so I got to be the first woman at my base to work in my career field. I went to Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, and that was quite an adventure because a lot of people did not want those women there. And so I got to break through that glass ceiling. They put me in a career field that had a top secret security clearance, so I learned how to be very responsible for extreme inventory that I would probably still have to shoot you if I told you I too much about
Abe Baldonado:was gonna say, I'm sure you can't tell us exactly what you did. I was about to ask, so what did you do?
Brenda Olson:I worked on B-fifty two aircraft and their delivery system. I worked on the missiles that they would send off. At the time, it was a SRAM missile that's been put out of inventory. Now they still have the cruise missile that I worked on, and that that is also conventional. But when I worked on it, it was nuclear.
Brenda Olson:After working in that career field, they downsized it a little bit when the Cold War ended, and they cross trained me over into an administrative field working with the operations people, the people that fly on the airplanes. And so I got the opportunity to go to some other bases and to include Okinawa, Japan, which was a lot of fun. Think everybody should spend some time overseas and see what we have in this country.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, think as Americans, we take a lot for granted. You know, I on on my wife's side, we have family who immigrated from Mexico. But, I mean, you know, you just hear the stories about these other countries like Mexico. You know, poverty in Mexico is very different than poverty in The United States.
Abe Baldonado:And until you see it for what it is, I mean, even just as US citizens, you know, I remember as a kid going over to Nogales, Mexico or Juarez, you know, and it it's a different life. You know? You even think about the poverty that we have here. It's not even equivalent to the poverty that some of these other countries face, you know, and I think a lot of those countries don't have services for the folks that are struggling either. You know, this is where America really excels is that, yeah.
Abe Baldonado:You know what? We do have folks that are struggling. We do have poverty, but it's not at rates and it's not at severity as it is in some of these other countries because it I'll tell you, you know, you travel. Anyone will tell you that if they've traveled across the world to other countries, they kinda realize, yeah, we don't see that in America. We we we don't see this.
Abe Baldonado:It's very different. Even infrastructure, you know, just the basic luxuries that we take for granted today. You know, we're sitting at a 100 degrees today here. You know, we're we're going through a little heat stretch, but even just flipping on that refrigerated air is such a convenience that what would we do without it. You know?
Brenda Olson:And they they don't have Yeah. In in Okinawa. Okinawa is an island chain on Southern Japan, and it's farther south than Hawaii. They don't have air conditioning there. They have island breezes.
Brenda Olson:Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:So it's With a little bit of humidity probably.
Brenda Olson:Yeah. Very much. A lot of humidity. Very, very. But it was fun and it was a great cultural lesson.
Brenda Olson:When I retired, I was in Lubbock, Texas working with new pilots. A lot of them were Air Force Academy graduates learning how to be pilots. And there's really not much in Lubbock, Texas except sand and more sand and a lot of sand and oil and Texas. Tornadoes.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Tornadoes and Texas.
Brenda Olson:Yeah. That's and cotton. Yep. And cotton. So I looked around and I thought, I I need I don't wanna go back up north and deal with the humidity and the snow and stuff.
Brenda Olson:I didn't want to go out east and I never want to go to California again. That left me a little hole here and I thought, Albuquerque looks pretty nice. I retired here thirty years ago and I don't think that's a mistake at all. You know, I love this town. I'm always around aircraft.
Brenda Olson:So I got into travel. I was working for American Airlines. About a year later, I followed some balloonists up in the air, for thirty years I've been working with them as crew, and I've worked at the Fiesta, and I've worked organizing events. They say your first ride is for fun and after that you pay for a balloon and you really get involved, but it's a fun adventure. I do a lot of that.
Brenda Olson:I do a lot of things throughout this community. I ended up getting a job with the Forest Service and retired from there. I just watch how things fall into my lap. When I moved here, finished my education, worked towards an MBA with global management so I can deal with the international community again. And certainly with all of the government experience I have, I think I know how to get through a lot of that red tape.
Brenda Olson:Yeah. So
Abe Baldonado:Well, Brenda, I will say I'm very impressed for any of our viewers who live in House District 28. I highly encourage them to go look at your website, get to learn more about you because a lot of candidates, you know, they have some basics on their website about, you know, key areas that they care about, but you actually provide some solutions. And I was really impressed by that before you were coming on today. You know, I just took a look at your website and just kinda get a feel of, you know, what's important to Brenda. And I was amazed.
Abe Baldonado:Not only did you have the topics, but you had plans. You had some solutions. You know, I I think for crime, you know, you talked about, hey. We need harsher penalties on repeat offenders. But you also said what I think a lot of people are afraid to say, but maybe we need to look at reinstituting three strikes law.
Abe Baldonado:You know, because when is enough enough? You know, when we have repeat offenders that are causing harm to families, and obviously we know rehabilitation is not going to work on these individuals, why continue putting them out into the streets and causing harm to create more victims? So, and that wasn't just it. And so for some of our viewers here, you know, it's really impressive just to see how you broke down some of the key areas that you care about, but then also potential policy solutions because I think that's what we lack today. A lot of times in politics, we hear people say, I'm running for office, but they don't lay out solutions anymore.
Abe Baldonado:Right? And I think this became a big frustration of mine back in 2020 where I completely checked out during COVID from politics in 2020 just because not that I wasn't aware, but I just didn't watch as much as I used to. And it was frustrating because we have Democrat congressmen and women in New Mexico running for office and their only platform was, I'm anti Donald Trump. That's it.
Brenda Olson:Correct.
Abe Baldonado:Like, hey. New Mexicans are struggling. Affordability is a thing. Our schools are shut down. Our education is tanking.
Abe Baldonado:Our economy is tanking because we shut it down during COVID. And for me, that that frustrated me. That that frustrated me that we just saw this polarization of politics where it was just, I'm pro Trump or I'm anti Trump. And that's never good for New Mexicans. It's never good for Americans.
Abe Baldonado:You know? It's like, no. Why are you running? What are the solutions? What are the key areas that you care about most?
Abe Baldonado:I'm not you know, if you care more about education than I do, I'm not gonna judge you for that, but it's great that you care about education. It's great that you care about economy. Everyone has their preferences on what their top issues are. But it's good to have candidates that say, these are my top issues and I think this is where we need to focus and maybe bring back some common sense. And here are some solutions that we can actually implement.
Abe Baldonado:We can measure and we can identify if it's working or it's not working. And if it's not working, then okay, we go back to the drawing board. But here's a solution to tackle this problem. And a lot of times to a lot of these problems, the solution's already there. We just have to deal with politics and leadership that runs our state to push some of those policies.
Abe Baldonado:And so just I'm a little long winded here. I just wanna say I'm really impressed and just big kudos to you and your team for really sharing with your constituents. Here are the top things that I care about, but also here are the solutions because I think more people need to see a little bit more of that and also pay attention to that. It's it's crucial. You know, don't go to the ballot box just knowing Brenda.
Abe Baldonado:Okay. You know Brenda, but do you know what she cares about? Do you know the solutions, and do you support those solutions?
Brenda Olson:Right. Yeah. I wanna say, first of all, Trump is not running here till so let's leave him out. Run into that a little bit when I'm walking around. Door knocking.
Brenda Olson:And I'm like, Why are you worried about him and why are you asking me about things that are happening out of the country? I am not running for that level. Yes, I have opinions on them, but I'm concerned about what's happening here in District 28. When I go to Santa Fe and I start voting on things, I'm not just voting for District 28, I'm voting for Albuquerque, I'm voting for New Mexico. We have a terrible reputation.
Brenda Olson:This is a beautiful state. We have so many amazing things here that are very unique, and I'm not just talking about the minerals and things like that, I'm talking about the scenery. Why are you here? The culture, the geography, The numerous things, yes, And it's I just said, you know, I've had enough, so they weren't listening to me when I sat on my couch and tried to watch some of the legislative And the other part of that is, you said you were frustrated, well my opponent is the incumbent. During COVID, I wrote numerous letters saying, Vote this way or vote that way.
Brenda Olson:She doesn't care. She's never even responded to a letter that I know of, and I wrote many, and I've been in Facebook jail many times, because I'm very verbal about things. But I wrote her and she never even sent one of those token, Thank you for your interest. Yeah. We appreciate My office will get back to you
Abe Baldonado:or something. Nothing. Some sort of reason.
Brenda Olson:Nothing. I started researching her and I'm like, Well, she's not doing it for me. I like the idea that we're last in everything. There's so much opportunity here. For me personally, my number one issue is crime because it's personally affected me.
Brenda Olson:A few years back, I was attacked in my own property, The outcome of that is basically they did it. There's a police report, but they never searched for the person. I'm not a victim. I am a survivor. I'm strong enough.
Brenda Olson:I've recovered. But then a few years later, my next door neighbor pulled a gun on me and my friends, and it took the police ninety minutes to respond.
Abe Baldonado:Wow.
Brenda Olson:And they took him to jail, He was out the next day, and he lived next door to me the next day. It took me three months to get a judge to even speak to me to get a restraining order on him. So this is messed up. And so I would like to propose something for the victims. I mean, I think we've got enough laws for criminals.
Brenda Olson:Yeah. We just don't enforce them. Yeah. And the victims, they need to be protected, whether it's a domestic violence or a child who's being abused in some way or the next door neighbor who's being attacked. Yeah.
Brenda Olson:We need something for victims. I know there are agencies out there trying, but I shouldn't have to wait two or three months to get a restraining order on the guy next door. A spouse shouldn't have to be afraid to call the police because she or he is being beat up in their home.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah, or wait ninety minutes for police officers to arrive in the domestic I violence mean, that's life and death potentially.
Brenda Olson:It can be. I had no idea. And This was at 11:00 in the morning. So, the other part of that is he was on their radar as a known mental health person. They were supposed to come and do a home checkup on him that day.
Brenda Olson:They just came a little earlier, is what they said, you know, joking with me, and I was like, That's not very funny. But they let him out. That's an excuse, mental health. That becomes the huge excuse here in this justice system that we can't try this person because they have mental health issues. Well, then we need to do something, but we don't need to let them back on the street.
Abe Baldonado:Or put people in danger.
Brenda Olson:Right. They need Fine, let's have treatment. Let's build treatment facilities. To my knowledge, we only have one rural facility.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. It's in Las Vegas, New Mexico, my hometown.
Brenda Olson:Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:I grew up. Yeah. So so Brenda, on that note, I wanna talk about your opponent, the incumbent, Pamela Herndon, who is fairly new to the legislature but has already made some very, very, very bad decisions and has voted horribly on a number of issues. She is a lawyer. Go figure.
Abe Baldonado:You know, we know trial attorneys in our legislature are wreaking havoc. They're crafting laws that then benefit their business, whatever it is that they do. We've seen that with medical malpractice, but even paid family medical leave. She's been on the wrong side a lot a lot of these common sense bills.
Brenda Olson:Right.
Abe Baldonado:And so I'm looking forward to your candidacy running against her, and I hope that your constituents in House District 28 pay attention to, you know, go do your research. That that's all I, like,
Brenda Olson:encourage your
Abe Baldonado:constituents. Go do your research on what your representative Pamela Herndon has voted on and and what she's committed to because it's probably not in the best interest of most of House District 28.
Brenda Olson:Probably not. I've researched her myself and I can't tell you anything she's done for my district. Those same potholes from 2021 are still there on one to bow. You know, she's not helping the infrastructure. She was appointed.
Brenda Olson:She was not elected initially and she went in lockstep with MLG and all of the shutdowns for COVID. She was obviously chosen to be put in that position because she would And step in she is a lawyer, and from what I've seen, her tendencies seem to be towards social Justice. Yeah. You know, ACLU and things like that that are really we need to run them out of town. The ACLU, you know, all they do is They've been on the side
Abe Baldonado:of things as well, you know, just most recently when we were talking, you know, there's a lot of discussion around the CARA Act and, you know, they said, hey, you shouldn't take drug exposed babies away from their parents who are and I'm like, what? Like you're on the wrong side of this issue. What do you mean? I understand. No one ever wants to rip a family apart or take a child from their parent.
Abe Baldonado:But if that parent is not parenting and they're exposing their kids to drugs that kid is far better removed from that parent until they can prove otherwise, you know, but the ACLU came out and try to appeal that decision and which shocked me and it just showed me like, yeah, you all are on the wrong side of the And issues I know they they tend to come from the the standpoint of we speak for for minorities. I'm a minority. You don't speak for me.
Brenda Olson:That's all
Abe Baldonado:I'm say. That's all I'm gonna say. But it's frustrating when you see organizations like theirs, you know, they're really the ones that try to push this divisive race narrative and you know this who has what who doesn't and that's usually the side that they're on, you know, and again, they they come from social justice standpoint that's not really rooted in actual facts or
Brenda Olson:or truth. No. It's just an agenda and and like, I don't know where it starts, but that's these George Soros and some of these out of state things. We need to focus on New Mexico and we need to unify New Mexico and we need to stop. We all have the same problems.
Brenda Olson:I have bills to pay every month. I'm on a fixed income as a senior citizen. I don't everybody has problems. Everybody's trying to fight to right now to buy school supplies for their kids.
Abe Baldonado:When schools should be providing those supplies. I mean, we look at how much money is being pumped into our public education system and this is coming as a former teacher and a governance board member for a charter school. I will tell you that there's no excuse that schools cannot afford to have supplies for students. It shouldn't even fall on the parent to have to provide Kleenex tissue paper and earphones and all this stuff. I mean, those are things that should be in every classroom and should be, you know, but again priorities.
Abe Baldonado:Where are the priorities at of a school district?
Brenda Olson:Is money going? Exactly. Have a school teacher lives across the street from me. I believe she's about sixth grade something like that and and she puts a lot of her own money and buying lot of teachers do.
Abe Baldonado:A lot of teachers
Brenda Olson:They can have their basic pens and pencils. Yeah. And you know, notepads and
Abe Baldonado:that's unfair to that teacher because I'm sure he or she has bills to pay as well. You know, they have, you know, they're they're struggling with affordability just as much as out of fill up their tank. They got to buy a car. They have to pay a home. They have to pay rent.
Abe Baldonado:Right. Whatever it may be. So, you know, the fact and that's that's the the beautiful thing about our educators is that many of them go above and beyond for the students and they don't bat an eye. They like to them spending this money is well worth it because it helps my students. And that is a wonderful thing.
Abe Baldonado:My my big frustration is it shouldn't have to be that way, though.
Brenda Olson:It shouldn't
Abe Baldonado:The school should provide you
Brenda Olson:But for what understand.
Abe Baldonado:Shouldn't have to ration paper.
Brenda Olson:All of this all of this money from gas and oil, percentage of it goes to the school? We get a lot of money that goes into our school.
Abe Baldonado:Nearly half of our budget goes
Brenda Olson:to education. And we're number last. Mhmm. We can't we don't our graduation levels, our our scores for reading and arithmetic and stuff like that, it's very sad for the students, they're being cheated. The money, they're gonna put Well, the Democrats want to put more money into the school systems again, and I don't vote for school bonds.
Brenda Olson:Yeah. You miss that doesn't the yellow. Go to
Abe Baldonado:the best funding formula that was recognized. I mean, is the most generous funding formula for public schools across the nation. And since MLG took over, we've increased that spending, and we have historic amounts of investment in our public education system and yet we have no return on investment.
Brenda Olson:We have nothing.
Abe Baldonado:None. So money is not the problem. That tells me that there's a problem with the system. There's a problem with accountability and we need to rethink some of these programs. We need to rethink how we're funding our school systems.
Abe Baldonado:And, you know, quite frankly, need to find out why isn't the money getting down to the classroom.
Brenda Olson:Why isn't being spent on the student instead of on well, something sort of made me laugh. It's not funny. But last week when they started school, why did they not check the air conditioning a week before school? Why did they wait to day one to find out that it doesn't work?
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Brenda Olson:It's it's just it it's very sad.
Abe Baldonado:You would think it's common sense. You'd
Brenda Olson:be like, this is common sense. But
Abe Baldonado:I guess not.
Brenda Olson:I get accused of that periodically that I have common sense. Well, if that's common sense, okay.
Abe Baldonado:And with APS, I think my biggest frustration and this should frustrate especially folks in like rural New Mexico and Yeah. You know, across our our state. APS right now per pupil is getting close to $37,000 for per student. $37,000. That can buy you the best private school and some change.
Abe Baldonado:Like you'd have money left over. Why is that money not following the student to better high quality education programs, you know? And that's the frustrating thing is that even with declining enrollment at at APS, it it has dropped. Every year after year, their enrollment is dropping.
Brenda Olson:Right.
Abe Baldonado:Yet they're receiving more money for no results, you know, mediocre results. And I'm being nice by saying mediocre.
Brenda Olson:Yes. You
Abe Baldonado:are. And we're seeing them celebrate mediocracy. And I'm like, no. We should not be celebrating mediocracy.
Brenda Olson:The sillies are lower and
Abe Baldonado:we're celebrating down here. Yeah.
Brenda Olson:Lower the standards again for for graduation rates and stuff.
Abe Baldonado:I I cannot stand graduation rates, Brenda. And if you've watched some of the Chile Wire podcast where we've talked education, I think it is the most flawed metric because you can graduate 90% of your kids, but if half of them can't read, then you failed.
Brenda Olson:They're they can't they're gonna become adults and they don't know how to be an adult. They don't have any of the skill set. They can't they can't balance their checkbook. They can't give me change at the McDonald's window. Right?
Brenda Olson:They can't communicate because they spent two years away from anybody being
Abe Baldonado:Or heavily relying on, you know, technology.
Brenda Olson:Technology and and yeah, I mean, common sense to me is they're finally saying to take the phones out of the classroom. Why did that take five, six, seven years? That's common sense. Put your phone away. You're here to learn now.
Brenda Olson:And if you have to sit there on your phone, then you can leave. And we just need to allow teachers to teach and stop being babysitters and stop being the police.
Abe Baldonado:But put the interest of kids over adults.
Brenda Olson:Over adults.
Abe Baldonado:Put the kids And over the
Brenda Olson:I'll say this very bluntly, under the age of 18, no, they do not have rights. They Parents are being have rights. Parents
Abe Baldonado:Parents have rights.
Brenda Olson:And these students don't have the right to go and talk to a counselor and say, I want to change my sex or I want to get an abortion or I want birth control pills or you know, things like that is not up to a child. That needs to involve
Abe Baldonado:Or a school administrator Or without the parents
Brenda Olson:No, the parents need to They need to not only get involved, but they need to be allowed to be involved and that needs to stop. Teachers need to teach, parents need to parents, administrators need to stay out of it. They go go be the hierarchy. You don't you don't see Bill Gates down in the middle of of his factories and telling them how to how to move the the microchips around. He stays where he belongs.
Brenda Olson:Well, administrators need to Yeah. They they need to get in their lane.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Everyone needs to stay
Brenda Olson:in their lane. Yeah. So
Abe Baldonado:Well, well, Brenda, I wanna be mindful of your time. Where can people go to learn more about you, your campaign? You actually have an event tonight. Unfortunately, when this actually goes out, it'll already have passed, but you're having events. It seems like you're you're getting creative, but tonight you're doing a a paint some paint and pint or
Brenda Olson:Paint a pint. Paint and pint. Paint and pint at Brewlab one zero one in the Northeast Heights. We're gonna be learning how to paint whatever you want to on the side of a pint glass that we provide, and of course you get it, you get to keep it.
Abe Baldonado:You get a free beer, right?
Brenda Olson:You get a free beer. Brewlab is a popular location here in The Heights, so it's small business also that I try to support. To learn more about me, I have a really good web page out there. It's olson4nm.com. You can join my team.
Brenda Olson:You can send questions if you have a specific question, something I might have an opinion on, or how I would react to something. We have a Facebook page. If you go to the website, you can go to all these pages: Instagram, Gmail account, everything. The webpage will also tell you about anything we have planned in the future, because we are planning a few more events, fundraisers and fundraisers and fundraisers. So
Abe Baldonado:No. It seems like a lot of fun seeing all the different events that you have planned and I highly encourage any constituents in House District 28 and even outside, get to know Brenda. You're I noticed on your website that you have a a meet Brenda and, you know, you can request a time to sit down with you, have a coffee, have a beer, and and talk about some of the issues that you care about most for House District 28, but Albuquerque and New Mexico in general.
Brenda Olson:Yes. Like I said, when I go to Santa Fe, it's not about just District 28 because every vote counts for the entire state. And that's whether it's oil and gas, minerals, school education, Medicare, it doesn't matter. My votes will affect everybody in New Mexico. So that's why I invite anybody that wants to, to come and join our team, help us with walking and anything like that.
Brenda Olson:Not everybody on my team is from my district, but they support me because they say I have common sense.
Abe Baldonado:Is common sense ain't so common. That's what my day
Brenda Olson:That's used to that's it.
Abe Baldonado:And Brenda, most of all, I I cannot let you get away without the most important question today that I realized I didn't ask upfront, but it's the most important question, the hardest question you're gonna get on the podcast before we wrap up. Red or green?
Brenda Olson:Christmas.
Abe Baldonado:Alright. Alright. Both.
Brenda Olson:I love them both. It just depends on where it's from.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Absolutely. What what are your some of your favorite spots?
Brenda Olson:Oh, one of my favorite is Papa Felipe's. Okay. That's in my district and I really do like them. There's a few of them and sad to see a lot of them have been closing and opening and stuff, but that's my number one.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. And Brenda, for our audience and for folks just listening in, I know we say House District 28, but can you give us a better idea of what that district looks like, where it's located? Just for folks listening who are like, I'm not sure if I'm in House District 28. What what where does that encompass?
Brenda Olson:Well, has you you really have to go online to find out specifically when you're on the edge, but basically, it's Montgomery to Constitution, Morris East. But there are areas North Of Montgomery and areas South Of Constitution. When they when they gerrymandered they made little clause.
Abe Baldonado:They sure did gerrymander. That's for sure. I I'll tell you back in 2011 when I graduated from college, you know, I studied political science, wanted to be a lawyer. Didn't end up being a lawyer. Probably saved a lot of money not doing so.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. I remember learning about gerrymandering in college and talking about it. Never did I think I would, like, see it. But in twenty eleven, twenty twelve, they did the redistricting session. The first one that I got to be a part of as an intern for the New Mexico State Legislature.
Abe Baldonado:And man, all I can think about was the word contiguous. And I'm looking at the maps. I'm like, these aren't contiguous. That's for sure. And our most recent maps certainly are not contiguous and they definitely don't reflect the the landscape of New Mexico when you have South Valley Albuquerque with Southeast New Mexico.
Abe Baldonado:Think some of the issues that keep people up in there are very different. And so and unfortunately, that happened not only in those districts, but even in our our state representative and state senate districts as well. So I I'm glad you made note of that because, yeah, they're they're severely gerrymandered, we have a big census coming up in 2030 that could potentially change. And that's why this election matters so much and so does 2028. But when we think about the governor, you know, Greg we have to get Greg Hole elected because I I don't think I trust a Deb Holland running the next census and the next redistricting session.
Brenda Olson:I would just say, you know, please voters check out who you're voting for. And
Abe Baldonado:And you know what? And if you look at the issues and say, hey, you know what? I still agree with this other person, then okay.
Brenda Olson:Okay. Have a reason.
Abe Baldonado:Right. Exactly.
Brenda Olson:Have a reason. Don't tell me because she's a girl or because she's this race or because they grew up in New Mexico. I can't vote for somebody that didn't grow up here. You know what? We need new blood in Santa Fe.
Brenda Olson:I call it the DNA needs to get a little kick start again. Yeah,
Abe Baldonado:we definitely need a change, that's
Brenda Olson:You for look the monarchy of Great Britain and all of the health problems that they have, and you know, that's what happens when you have just one DNA line in a system. New Mexico needs new blood, and I've got a lot of background, a lot of experience, a lot of variety that I've lived and experienced, and I am willing to listen to everybody. As long as you have some common sense or at least a reason to state whatever your You want to vote for this person? Tell me what they've done for you. And learn what's going on in your state.
Brenda Olson:Don't just say, my family's always been Democrat, so I have to vote Democrat. It was a different party
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Brenda Olson:Even twenty years ago. So learn and vote appropriately and vote wisely.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Vote your conscience, vote your values, and your morals, and find out who, you know, whose platform works more for you and sounds Right. Like the policies best fit for you, your family, your friends. And Brenda, I'm gonna refer to you. I think if we get you elected, I'm gonna refer to you as our Margaret Thatcher.
Abe Baldonado:Okay? Because you brought up Europe. So you're gonna be our Margaret Thatcher in Santa Fe where you're gonna fight socialism and you're gonna fight Definitely. Some of these crazy policies that we see coming out from the Democratic Party with their Democrat socialist I
Brenda Olson:was very comfortable comfortable being retired, and I'm going there to fight, and I'm the right person to do it.
Abe Baldonado:Well, you've always been a fighter. You fought for our country. You served our country, and so thank you for that, and thank you for taking that step out of retirement because I'm sure you were just enjoying your mornings every morning and your afternoons and, you know, but you know what? You're out talking to New Mexicans now and you're out to represent them and I think that is absolutely wonderful.
Brenda Olson:Yes.
Abe Baldonado:Wonderful. Well, Brenda, thank you so much. God bless you. God bless your family as you continue on this journey and we wish you the best of luck. If there's anything that we could do here in the Chile Wire is if you have updates, we'll be happy to share them with our guests.
Abe Baldonado:But in the meantime, we wish you best of luck and the the homestretch is actually starting now.
Brenda Olson:It's it's coming. Yeah. It's coming.
Abe Baldonado:Remember, November 3, everyone, general election, get out and vote. Vote Brenda Olson for New Mexico and House District 28.
Brenda Olson:Thank you.
Abe Baldonado:Awesome. Thank you so much, Brenda. That's it y'all for this week's Chile Wire. We'll see you next time.