Xochitl Torres Small

Xochitl Liana Torres Small (first name pronounced /ˈsoʊtʃiːl/ SOH-cheel; born November 15, 1984) is an American lawyer and politician from the state of New Mexico, serving as the U.S. Representative for New Mexico's 2nd congressional district. The district is the largest by area outside of the at-large congressional districts, and covers the southern half of the state including Roswell, Carlsbad, Las Cruces and southern Albuquerque. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Xochitl Liana Torres was born on November 15, 1984 in Portland, Oregon, to Marcos and Cynthia "Cynta" Torres. Marcos and Cynta were both educators, Marcos with child care providers, parents and fathers, Cynta as a public school special education teacher. Marcos also worked as a social worker in child protective services, services for the developmentally disabled and union leader. Torres Small was raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

After graduating high school from Mayfield High School in absentia while she earned her International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma from Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Eswatini, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and her Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Torres Small worked as a field representative for U.S. Senator Tom Udall from 2009 to 2012. She was a federal law clerk in the New Mexico District from 2015 to 2016. She was a water attorney with the Kemp Smith law firm.

Elections

2018

In the 2018 elections, Torres Small ran for the open United States House of Representatives seat in New Mexico's 2nd congressional district. The incumbent, Steve Pearce, declined to run for reelection in order to run for Governor of New Mexico. Torres Small defeated Madeline Hildebrandt in the Democratic Party primary election, and defeated Republican nominee Yvette Herrell in the November 6, 2018, general election. On November 7, 2018, following the final absentee ballot counts, Torres Small was declared the winner by the New Mexico Secretary of State. Torres Small ran as a moderate Democrat.

The results were close on election night, with Herrell in the lead at the end of the night and some New Mexico media organizations projecting that Herrell would win. The next day, more ballots were counted which narrowed Herrell's lead, and media organizations rescinded their projections. The Associated Press called the election for Torres Small on November 7, 2018. Herrell refused to concede and went on to claim, without evidence, that the ballot counting may not have been conducted lawfully. Herrell claimed on Fox News on November 10, 2018, that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver had "magically found 4,000 ballots that had not been counted." However, the votes in question were absentee ballots which were tabulated in full view of reporters on November 7, 2018. Herrell claimed in the Fox News interview that there were "over 100 documented complaints about some of the things that happened during this race", but did not elaborate on the complaints or substantiate them with documents.

Tenure

In her first week in office, she and other members of the CHC traveled to the United States Border Patrol station at Alamogordo, New Mexico, where Felipe Gómez Alonzo, an eight-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, died in custody.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
  • Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation and Operations
  • Subcommittee on Oversight, Management and Accountability (Chair)

Caucus memberships

• Blue Dog Coalition
• Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues
• Congressional Hispanic Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition

In 2016, Small's husband, Nathan Small, was elected in District 36 as a Democratic member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. He ran for reelection in 2018, winning with 59.9% of the general election vote. She is a Lutheran.