{"id":587173,"date":"2018-05-30T08:27:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T14:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=587173"},"modified":"2018-06-01T04:57:47","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T10:57:47","slug":"hispanic-identity-is-shaping-u-s-senate-race-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/05\/hispanic-identity-is-shaping-u-s-senate-race-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Hispanic identity is shaping U.S. Senate race in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_587181\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-587181\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"O'Rourke and Cruz\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Beto_and_Cruz.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Doug Young: O&#039;Rourke \/ Michael Stravato: Cruz \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Rep. Beto O&#8217;Rourke (left), D-El Paso, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EDINBURG, Texas \u2014 Flanked by a nine-piece mariachi band, U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/vicente-gonzalez\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vicente Gonzalez<\/a> leaned on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/beto-orourke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beto O&#8217;Rourke<\/a>\u2019s roots while introducing his congressional colleague to a crowd of Rio Grande Valley residents at a recent campaign event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeto is one of us,\u201d Gonzalez told the nearly 400 people who crowded into a local football stadium concourse on a humid May afternoon. \u201cHe\u2019s from the border. &#8230; He understands our culture. <i>El nos conoce<\/i>.\u201d (&#8220;He knows us,&#8221; the McAllen congressman said.)<\/p>\n<p>It was one of just a few nods O\u2019Rourke, his supporters and the Hispanic campaign surrogates joining him on a four-day swing through the border would make to the Democratic candidate\u2019s ties to the border and to the state\u2019s Hispanic community.\u00a0The next morning, O\u2019Rourke opened a town hall at a McAllen park by speaking almost completely in Spanish. And later that day in Laredo, a band warming up the standing-room only crowd played Tito Puente\u2019s \u201cOye Como Va\u201d before the lead singer remarked, \u201cWe finally got a candidate from the border.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/05\/30\/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-us-senate-race-hispanic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Around the same time this month, U.S. Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ted-cruz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ted Cruz<\/a>, R-Texas, was huddling with a group of Hispanic business owners at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Houston. One of the organizers, longtime Cruz supporter Jacob Monty, admitted some of his friends were skeptical he could get Latinos to turn out for the senator, but he sought to prove them wrong. About 30 business owners ended up attending, and Monty estimated he could&#8217;ve gotten 100 if they had a bigger venue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The issue I always start with is we need more Latino senators, not fewer Latino senators, and you can say whatever you want about a particular vote, but Ted is Hispanic,&#8221; Monty said. &#8220;He is Latino.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The split-screen campaigning by Cruz and O&#8217;Rourke illustrated their unique \u2014 even peculiar \u2014 connections to a Hispanic community that many see as the future of Texas politics. O&#8217;Rourke is white but has spent most his life on the Texas-Mexico border and has imbued himself with Hispanic culture, while Cruz is a Cuban-American from Houston whose political career is not as often closely<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>associated with his Hispanic identity.<\/p>\n<p>The ways in which the two candidates\u2019 unique relationships with the Hispanic community have already intersected in the high-profile race are numerous. There was Cruz\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/03\/07\/primaries-behind-them-cruz-orourke-ready-battle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ridiculing of O\u2019Rourke\u2019s first name \u201cBeto\u201d<\/a> even though Cruz is best known by his own diminutive nickname. There was O\u2019Rourke&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/03\/07\/beto-orourke-texas-primary-results-by-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conspicuous underperformance in border counties<\/a> that called into question his support among Hispanic voters. And more recently, there was O\u2019Rourke\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/05\/01\/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-texas-6-debates-spanish-twice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">request to debate Cruz <\/a>twice in Spanish, though Cruz is anything but fluent in the language.<\/p>\n<p>And while the Hispanic vote in Texas strongly leans Democratic,\u00a0neither candidate appears to be taking anything for granted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Hispanic community in Texas is a conservative community,\u201d Cruz said in a recent interview. \u201cThe values that resonate in our community are faith, family, patriotism &#8230; and the American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Campaign contrasts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Cruz is the son of a Cuban immigrant, and his father\u2019s story has been a staple of his stump speeches \u2014 how he fled the communist Cuban regime in the 1950s and came to America not knowing any English, possessing nothing but $100 sewn into his underwear and washing dishes for 50 cents an hour to pay his way through college. It&#8217;s an experience many Hispanic Texans can relate to, Cruz says.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke is a self-described \u201cson of the border\u201d who grew up in El Paso and has spent most of his life residing there. While campaigning, he regularly reflects on his experiences growing up and representing a bicultural community that\u2019s inextricably linked to Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/ted-cruz-poll-dems-have-edge-over-gop-among-hispanics-in-texas\/article\/2533470\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post-election survey<\/a> done by Cruz\u2019s pollster in 2012 found Cruz got 40 percent of the Hispanic vote against Democratic opponent Paul Sadler when he was first elected\u00a0\u2014 a figure he often cities to show he outperformed Mitt Romney, the party&#8217;s presidential nominee at the time.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke has never campaigned statewide before, but he\u2019s been remarkably successful in El Paso, where Hispanics make up 81 percent of the population. O&#8217;Rourke\u00a0unseated a longtime Hispanic incumbent in 2012 to represent the 16th Congressional District and sailed to re-election twice.<\/p>\n<p>The two candidates are at odds on key issues for Hispanic voters. Cruz is a long-standing foe of the Affordable Care Act, through which more than a million Texans \u2014 many of them Hispanics \u2014 obtained health insurance. O\u2019Rourke wants to put the country on a path toward universal health care.<\/p>\n<p>On the immigration front, Cruz supports funding a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and rails against \u201camnesty\u201d for people living in the country illegally. That includes protections for \u201cDreamers,&#8221; the common term for young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. O\u2019Rourke is vehemently opposed to a border wall and wants a permanent solution for both Dreamers and their parents.<\/p>\n<p>The candidates\u00a0also have somewhat different attitudes toward Hispanic outreach.<\/p>\n<p>In his current campaign, Cruz said he is focused on continuing to make \u201cthe case that the values of Hispanic voters, like the values of Texans throughout the state, are conservative values.\u201d He is also seeking to persuade Hispanic voters that the modern Democratic Party has become too liberal for them, and that the party overlooks that &#8220;one of the communities that is harmed the most by unchecked illegal immigration is the Hispanic community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, O\u2019Rourke struggles with the idea of making distinctions among voters based on ethnicity for fear of pandering to certain voters. O\u2019Rourke said he prefers to strike a balance between the issues that matter to a community and more universal concerns. In places like McAllen, that may mean talking about the border wall but also making the case for more affordable health care, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a hard time going too far in tailoring a message,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said in a recent interview. \u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to feel that they\u2019re being played to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a state where Hispanics tend to favor Democratic candidates, few are predicting that the support of Hispanic voters in Texas \u2014 both those living along the border and those residing in massive numbers in the state\u2019s biggest cities \u2014 \u00a0is truly up for grabs in this race this fall.\u00a0But the O\u2019Rourke-Cruz matchup nonetheless provides an\u00a0unusual case study\u00a0on the ability of two candidates with unique ties to the state\u2019s Hispanic community to appeal to voters who many prognosticate hold the political future of state in their hands.<\/p>\n<p>Voters tend to support candidates who either reflect their positions on the issues that matter most to them or who they can identify with personally or a combination of the two, said Victoria De Francesco Soto, a political science lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin who focuses on Latino politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like poli sci 101,\u201d she added. \u201cWhat Beto represents is this really weird, quasi best of both worlds for Latinos where substantively he\u2019s in line with most of the issues that the majority of Latinos care about and support. Descriptively, he\u2019s not Latino, but he\u2019s culturally Latino-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Cultural credentials<\/h3>\n<p>In kickstarting the general election, the Cruz campaign itself focused on one of O\u2019Rourke\u2019s most personal connections to the border community \u2014 his name.<\/p>\n<p>Within minutes of O\u2019Rourke winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in March, Cruz\u2019s campaign released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MvKElqdUxZg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">country music jingle<\/a> needling the Democrat over his first name, a kind of Spanish-language nickname for \u201cRoberto\u201d that dates to his childhood. \u201cLiberal Robert wanted to fit in,\u201d the song went, \u201cso he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The jingle drew attention to O\u2019Rourke\u2019s cultural bonafides on a level he had not previously experienced as an El Paso congressman. But it additionally shined a spotlight on Cruz, who also doesn\u2019t go by his birth name: Rafael Edward Cruz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe may just be unfamiliar with this part of Texas culture that you would find in El Paso or in Del Rio or Eagle Pass or Laredo,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said, pointing back to his recent trip to the Rio Grande Valley during which several supporters approached him to declare \u201cI\u2019m Beto, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really only when you\u2019re just not familiar with those communities where millions of our fellow Texans live or are from that you can make that mistake or that you can not understand,\u201d O\u2019Rourke added.<\/p>\n<p>To Cruz\u2019s campaign, the episode was a political victory, regardless of the claims of hypocrisy. \u201cEverybody now knows his name is Robert Francis O\u2019Rourke \u2014 Irishman \u2014 and [Cruz\u2019s is] Rafael Cruz,\u201d Cruz strategist Jeff Roe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yZx6b9zQYOo&amp;t=1h9m44s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">later gloated<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke\u2019s recent return to the border came two months after he handily won the Democratic nomination but ended primary election night behind relatively unknown Houston activist Sema Hernandez in several border counties.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/03\/08\/texas-primary-democrat-beto-orourke-confronts-hispanic-surname-advanta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">uncommon outcome in state Democratic primaries<\/a> in which, experts have said, Hispanic-sounding surnames go a long way with Hispanic voters when name recognition among primary candidates is low. A similar outcome happened in the 2014 Democratic primary for governor, when Wendy Davis lost several border counties with large Hispanic populations to a little-known opponent named Ray Madrigal.<\/p>\n<p>But it opened up a line of questioning over O\u2019Rourke\u2019s efforts to engage with Hispanic voters along the border where turnout is often depressingly low. Even the Democratic nominee for governor, Lupe Valdez,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonblade.com\/2018\/05\/09\/sheriff-valdez-could-make-lgbt-history-in-campaign-for-the-everyday-texan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">would go on to declare<\/a> that the congressman was \u201cweak on the Hispanic vote\u201d in what seemed like a reference to O\u2019Rourke\u2019s performance on the border on primary night.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke&#8217;s primary performance went far from unnoticed by Cruz, a political obsessive in his own right. After the results came in, Cruz asked his team to run the numbers on which candidate earned more votes in his respective primary in the counties where Hispanic adults make up at least 40 percent of the population. Cruz had a higher tally than O\u2019Rourke in 39 out of 62 of them.<\/p>\n<p>While Democrats and analysts chalked up O\u2019Rourke\u2019s and Davis\u2019 primary problems to the presence of Hispanic surnames on the ballot, Cruz offered a different explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[O\u2019Rourke] lost many, many more counties in the Democratic primary than Wendy Davis did, including virtually every county up and down the Rio Grande, and I believe the reason is the same: His policies are much too liberal for most Hispanic voters in Texas,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke actually won the most populous counties on the border, including his home county of El Paso and most of the border counties in West Texas. He also won Hidalgo and Cameron counties \u2014 key counties in the Rio Grande Valley. And O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s vote tallies in most of those counties far surpassed votes for Cruz in the Republican primary.<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_8V8vE1eaWk&amp;t=24m32s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conceded<\/a> that he needed to spend more time in border counties but noted he has been pursuing a &#8220;much longer strategy&#8221; of visiting every corner of Texas to reach voters of all political stripes, not just seeking to drive up turnout in traditional Democratic strongholds.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, the candidates\u2019 cultural credentials took center stage again with O\u2019Rourke challenging Cruz to six debates \u2014 two in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>While O\u2019Rourke is fluent in Spanish, Cruz has never been known as a proficient speaker, and it has come up on occasion in his political career. Most famously, during the 2016 presidential race, Marco Rubio, a fellow Cuban-American senator, alleged Cruz \u201cdoesn\u2019t speak Spanish\u201d at a debate \u2014 and the Texan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2016\/02\/14\/what-that-cruz-rubio-he-doesnt-speak-spanish-thing-was-about\/?utm_term=.4adba7a240a2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retorted with a stilted statement<\/a> in the language.<\/p>\n<p>When he was initially asked about O\u2019Rourke\u2019s hopes for Spanish-language debates, Cruz admitted his Spanish \u201cremains lousy\u201d and then offered a sentence in the language: \u201cI understand almost everything, but I can\u2019t speak like I want to.\u201d He attributed it to the \u201ccurse of the second-generation immigrant,\u201d speculating that many in the Hispanic community could sympathize.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats sometimes do this when they want to be cute,\u201d Cruz later said in a radio interview. \u201cNo, we\u2019re not going to debate in Spanish. And, look, for a simple reason: No. 1, most Texans don\u2019t speak Spanish, but No. 2, my Spanish is lousy. We wouldn\u2019t have a very good debate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For O\u2019Rourke, who easily transitions from English to Spanish at campaign events, the proposal for a Spanish-language debate was rooted in a desire to engage with the millions of Texans who primarily speak Spanish or to whom being able to be listened to in Spanish \u201cis a sign of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want everyone engaged in our democracy, which I think we all do regardless of your background and regardless of the language you speak, you\u2019ve got to be able to listen to and work with everyone, and so that was the intent,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said.<\/p>\n<h3>Immigration debate<\/h3>\n<p>To Cruz\u2019s fiercest<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>critics, it\u2019s perplexing that the son of a Cuban immigrant can hold such hard-line immigration stances \u2014 to the point that in February he was the sole senator to oppose even starting debate on a proposal that would have granted a path to citizenship for Dreamers. And\u00a0throughout his\u00a0career, his positions have invited uncomfortable questions about his standing within his own ethnic group.<\/p>\n<p>In the current race, that vexation was most prominently displayed during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/betoorourke\/videos\/1641502012566169\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent Spanish-language interview<\/a> between Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos and O\u2019Rourke. Ramos, who frequently challenges elected officials over their positions on immigration, bluntly asked O\u2019Rourke if he believed Cruz was a traitor to Latinos.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke declined to indict Cruz as a race traitor and instead pointed out ways in which he believes Cruz\u2019s politics are out of line with the beliefs of Texas Latinos. After additional prodding by Ramos, O\u2019Rourke eventually conceded that Cruz does not represent Latinos.<\/p>\n<p>It was a sentiment echoed by some Hispanic supporters of O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n<p>Under the sweltering sun of a May morning, McAllen resident Fidel Garcia was among the roughly 150 Rio Grande Valley residents that gathered around the gazebo of a local park to hear from O\u2019Rourke. Sporting a \u201cBeto for Texas\u201d button on his yellow cotton button-up, Garcia cited Cruz\u2019s politics as they relate to Latinos as the main reason he was supporting O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other candidate is Cuban, but he has no interest in helping Latinos,\u201d Garcia said in Spanish, referring to Cruz. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a heart for the Latino people &#8230; He doesn\u2019t have a conscience for immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the other side are Cruz loyalists like Janie Melendez, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee from McAllen. Melendez, a Mexican-born teacher, said she feels well-represented by Cruz as a Hispanic Texan: She does not want &#8220;amnesty&#8221; for people in the country illegally, she is unapologetically anti-abortion and she would like to see gun rights expanded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a big fan of Robert O&#8217;Rourke,&#8221; she said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with the Tribune days later, O\u2019Rourke said he was surprised by Ramos\u2019 use of the term traitor. Still, O\u2019Rourke continued to make the case that \u2014 beyond his political positions \u2014 Cruz has not shied away from using disparaging language to refer to other Latinos.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Rourke recalled Cruz\u2019s reaction to his initiative to bring an El Paso \u201cDreamer\u201d as his guest to the State of the Union Address. While noting his own choice of guest \u2014 Sutherland Springs hero Stephen Willeford \u2014 Cruz referred to the \u201cDreamer\u201d as an \u201cillegal alien.\u201d But that choice of words, O\u2019Rourke argued \u201cis the kind of dehumanizing language you use for people for whom you don\u2019t have respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cruz chalked up the Ramos interview to another example of the willingness among Democratic politicians and national media reporters to engage in \u201crace-baiting and trying to use racial stereotypes and bigotry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany Democrats view it as unacceptable for an Hispanic or for an African-American to hold any views other than the liberal Democratic orthodoxy,\u201d Cruz said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>He recalled fondly how he confronted that orthodoxy on the college debating circuit, when he and his partner David Panton, a native of Jamaica, once argued against race-based affirmative action. To liberals on campus, it was \u201cshocking\u201d that the two men, Hispanic and black, would take such a position, Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>They ended up making their case successfully and handily winning a student vote.<\/p>\n<p><em>Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune&#8217;s journalism. Find a complete list of them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/support-us\/corporate-sponsors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><script async src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/05\/30\/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-us-senate-race-hispanic\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the high-profile race between Ted Cruz and Beto O&#8217;Rourke, there are numerous ways in which their unique relationships with the Hispanic community have intersected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":587181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2238,143,2260],"class_list":["post-587173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-election","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}