Ray declares 2024 candidacy for commission

Madigan Ray officially declared she is running for election to the Sandoval County Commission last month.

Ray is running to replace Dave Heil, who is terming out in December 2024, as District 4 Commissioner.

The 37-year-old Ray moved from California to Rio Rancho with her husband and dogs in 2022.

“I was born and raised in California, which I realize is a grievous and unforgivable sin, but just to put this to bed, I am not trying to turn to New Mexico to California,” Ray said. “My husband and I left California because we couldn’t afford to live there. When we were looking at the 49 other states, we visited New Mexico and decided this was the only place for us. We absolutely fell in love with it.”

Ray said she’s had an interest in local politics since she was a child and that interest was sparked again once she moved to Rio Rancho.

“A lot of the issues here are the issues that are everywhere in the country. There are certainly specific issues, but I feel like we’ve gotten a pretty good grasp on what’s going on here,” Ray said. “I’ve always had an interest in local politics, pretty much my whole life. My dad ran for and was elected to the school board in my hometown of Temecula, California. But you know, you move out, life gets in the way and you put aside your dreams of what you wanted to be when you grew up.”

The dream of running for local office became a reality after Ray spoke at governing body meetings against book banning.

“I was on Reddit one day and saw a post about how a hate group was going to be coming to the Rio Rancho Governing Body meeting to try and get some books banned at the local library,” Ray said. “The books were all queer literature, and they were claiming that anything with queer themes was pornography. And these are the kind of baseless allegations that the queer community has faced before. You know, every time they show up, we’ve got to show up and put them down. So I went to the Governing Body meetings. I got up and spoke at a couple of them to really express how opposed I was to any kind of book banning. And just I met some of the people, some of the folks in local politics. Kathleen Cates, one of our representatives for District 44, she was there and I got to know her. And as I started to get more and more involved in these things, this seat was presented to me as an option to run, and I thought, ‘Well, I can do some good here. I can make this a better place.'”

Ray runs the LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group at her employer, which provides resources and a safe space for LGBTQ+ employees who either are looking for career advancement or are having some kind of issue. She also sits on the Diversity Equity and Inclusion council at work, which oversees what all of the employee resource groups do.

Ray said her three biggest issues that she wants to fix if elected are public transit, housing and crime prevention.

“I’m a working-class person. Until we were finally able to buy a house here, we rented we were always paying somebody else’s mortgage. We were struggling to make ends meet,” Ray said. “So folks that are in that position, I understand those folks, and I don’t think that they have representation in government, because it’s expensive to run for office. It’s time consuming to run for office. They don’t get people that are caring about what’s going on with them.”

Public transit

“A robust, affordable public transit system is the best solution for crumbling roads, a growing population and the climate crisis,” Ray said. “Reducing the reliance on personal vehicles fosters better air quality, allows folks without reliable transportation to have broader employment opportunities, and increases public safety by providing a viable alternative to drinking and driving.

“Public transit in Sandoval County is basically limited to Monday through Friday. The bus schedules are not very full. They’re spread out pretty few and far between. They’re generally only at peak commuting times. So if you’re a single-car household, like my husband and I are, and your spouse has the car, but you need to go to the grocery store. How are you gonna get there, struggling to pay for Uber? That’s wildly expensive. Walk in the 110-degree heat in the middle of the summer or the snow in the winter? We need a more robust public transit system.”

Housing

“Housing has a lot of the same problems here that it has everywhere in the country, which is that a quarter of houses in New Mexico are owned by investment companies,” Ray said. “These are companies based in New York. That money is not sitting in our community. And we have no rent control. In fact, we have a ban on rent control in this state. Maybe it’s time to look at what people now need instead of the laws that were passed for people 30 years ago in an entirely different economic situation.”

Crime prevention

“My take on crime prevention comes from a living wage. It comes from stable housing. It comes from transportation to and from your work. It comes from having public transit so you can go out with your friends and have a few drinks and get home safe without driving. It comes from addiction treatment,” Ray said. “Everywhere in the country is seeing an increase in homelessness. Homelessness is a result of a lack of society taking care of its citizens. And what we need to do to take care of these folks is and put them in housing, put them in addiction treatment, give them mental health care. And so many homeless people are veterans. That’s appalling. My dad is a Vietnam veteran. He relies on the VA for his health care. We need to expand that kind of health care so that people who have served our country can be taken care of. They shouldn’t be on the streets.”

Ray said the main reason she is running is to give working-class citizens a representative in office who can relate to the issues they deal with everyday.

“As a working-class millennial, I’m tired of government at all levels making decisions that will affect future generations without those generations being in the room where it happens,” Ray said. “I believe that government exists to serve its citizens. Right now, it’s failing to serve everyone equally. In addition to an astronomical cost of living, we’re seeing extremists in city and state governments all over the country pass legislation to suppress human rights and further damage our planet. I’m running to make sure that doesn’t happen here in Sandoval County and to ensure that our natural resources, people and future are protected for generations to come. I believe all citizens have value, irrespective of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, country of origin, wealth, religion or housing status, and I will do my best to serve everyone who shares that ideal.”