A 2020 video shows Rep. Gabe Vasquez, the New Mexico Democrat now seeking a third House term, declaring that his home state sits on “stolen land” and claiming that racism is woven into virtually every aspect of American life, remarks that surfaced as national Republicans mount a fresh campaign to unseat him in a district President Trump carried last year.
Fox News Digital reviewed the video, recorded during an interview Vasquez gave to a New Mexico-based outlet while he was still a Las Cruces city councilmember. In it, Vasquez did not hedge.
He told the interviewer flatly: “We are on stolen land.” He then broadened his claim far beyond New Mexico geography.
“Just about every part of life that we experience has some racism embedded into it.”
Vasquez went further, expressing doubt that the country could rid itself of racial bias at all.
“I have become less optimistic about where this country stands in terms of being able to eradicate racism, because it is intergenerational. It is passed on. It is embedded into our system.”
Those are not the words of a candidate running as a moderate in a swing district. Yet that is exactly how Vasquez positioned himself when he defeated Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell and entered Congress in January 2023.
The “stolen land” remarks are not the only 2020 comments creating problems for Vasquez. CNN’s KFile previously reported that the same year, Vasquez appeared to justify rioting that followed the death of George Floyd. He also voiced support for the defund-the-police movement, using a pseudonym, during an interview at a Black Lives Matter protest.
And his policy proposals matched the rhetoric. As a city councilmember, Vasquez suggested he was open to replacing some police officers with licensed psychologists and clinicians to handle certain calls. He framed it in budget terms that left little room for misinterpretation.
“Those are the types of things that I’m committed to supporting, where if we do have to take budget away from a specific department, whether you know, it be police or otherwise.”
He added: “If we don’t need those positions anymore, if we don’t need those budget line items anymore, then we need to get rid of them. And that’s a decision I’m happy to try to champion at the city council.”
That language, championing the removal of police budget line items, sits uncomfortably next to the image Vasquez has cultivated in Washington. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rushed to defend him after the latest video surfaced. DCCC spokesperson Anna Elsasser told Fox News Digital:
“Rep. Vasquez has supported increased funding for law enforcement for his entire political career, including over $4 billion for state and local police as Congressman just this year.”
The claim covers his congressional career. It does not address what he said, and proposed, before he got to Congress. Voters in southern New Mexico can judge the gap for themselves.
Vasquez’s 2020 comments on race and policing are not the only friction point. Fox News Digital reported that he joined the majority of House Democrats in refusing to fund federal immigration enforcement absent a package of reforms, including tightened warrant requirements and a prohibition on officers wearing masks.
In a district that borders Mexico, Las Cruces is the largest city in his southwestern New Mexico seat, that vote carries weight. Trump carried the district in 2024. National Republicans are now mounting a second attempt to flip the seat, with Yvette Herrell, who held it from 2021 to 2023, identified as his likely challenger.
The broader pattern among Democratic leaders clashing with the current administration on enforcement and election integrity makes Vasquez’s positioning all the more precarious. He cannot simultaneously champion defunding police, call American life systemically racist, resist immigration enforcement funding, and run as a centrist.
Yet that appears to be the plan. The Cook Political Report shifted the race from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat” in January, citing Trump’s declining job approval and what it called Democrats’ strong electoral performance in 2025. That rating may give the DCCC confidence, but it also means the national spotlight stays on Vasquez’s record, including the parts he would rather leave in 2020.
The Republican National Committee did not mince words. RNC spokesman Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that Vasquez “should get the help he needs to realize how insane it is to call every single American racist, and he should be nowhere near Congress.”
Kraft’s language was sharp, but the underlying point is straightforward: a sitting congressman told voters that the land under their feet was stolen and that racism saturates every dimension of their lives. That is not a gaffe. It is a worldview, one that Vasquez articulated at length, on camera, and apparently believed enough to propose concrete budget cuts to policing.
The episode echoes a familiar pattern. Elected Democrats adopt the most progressive rhetoric available during moments of activist energy, then pivot to moderate branding when general-election voters are watching. We have seen similar dynamics play out in cities like New York, where racial-equity proposals drew swift federal scrutiny once the political winds shifted.
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vasquez’s campaign for comment but did not indicate receiving a response. Silence is a choice, too.
The question is not whether Vasquez is allowed to hold progressive views. He is. The question is whether he has been honest with the voters of New Mexico’s second Congressional district about what those views are.
In 2020, he called the state stolen land. He said racism is embedded into the system. He proposed pulling money from police budgets. He used a pseudonym to voice support for defunding police at a protest.
Then he ran for Congress as a moderate, won, and now seeks a third term in a district Trump won. The DCCC points to his congressional voting record on law-enforcement funding. The RNC points to his own words. Both are on the record.
Accountability in public life means officials cannot simply walk away from their own statements when the political calendar changes. Vasquez’s 2020 remarks were not off-the-cuff slips. They were detailed, deliberate policy positions delivered on camera. Southern New Mexico voters have every right to weigh them against whatever version of Gabe Vasquez shows up on the 2025 campaign trail.
If a candidate’s convictions change depending on who’s watching, those aren’t convictions. They’re costumes.
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