Sowards formally announces congressional run

Greg Sowards of Las Cruces has formally announced his campaign to replace Steve Pearce in Congress.

“As your representative, I will not cave under pressure. I love people but will not sell my soul for popularity in Washington,” Sowards said. “The decisions that I make will be based on my conservative, God-fearing principles and on the Constitution.”

Though I’ve written about Sowards’ candidacy several times already, he had not previously made a formal announcement of his candidacy.

Sowards, a Republican, lives in Las Cruces and owns Kid’s Kountry Child Care Centers and a small manufacturing business.

Sowards, 58, is a graduate of Los Lunas High School, New Mexico Military Institute and Brigham Young University. He is an Army veteran who served in Korea. Sowards and his wife Karen have six children and nine grandchildren.

He ran as a Republican in 1996 against then-U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen in part because of the growing national debt, which at the time was $5 trillion. Today is has grown to $9 trillion.

“I ran in 1996 because I knew we needed to change the direction our country was going,” Sowards said. “That change is only more critical today.”

Sowards said he will ask himself five questions before voting on legislation:

• Is it worth putting our children and grandchildren into debt?

• What effect does it have on America’s traditional family?

• Does it take rights away from law-abiding citizens and give them to criminals?

• Will it uphold the Constitution?

• Will it protect the sovereignty of America?

Sowards said he supports a strong military, border protection, gun rights, land rights, a fair tax and a smaller federal government. He is pro-life. And he had this to say about congressional earmarks:

“I believe in bringing every legitimate project to Southern New Mexico, but we must not squander our children’s future with useless pork projects and ‘bridges to nowhere,’” he said.