{"id":650794,"date":"2018-11-29T08:43:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T15:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=650794"},"modified":"2018-11-29T08:43:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T15:43:42","slug":"lujan-elected-to-u-s-house-leadership-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/11\/lujan-elected-to-u-s-house-leadership-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n elected to U.S. House leadership post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_245338\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-245338\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray-771x565.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n\" width=\"771\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray-771x565.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray-336x246.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray-768x562.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray-1170x857.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Lujan-Ben-Ray.jpg 1367w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, a Democrat entering his sixth term in office, was unanimously elected the assistant Democratic leader for the next Congress on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Luj\u00e1n said he was \u201chonored\u201d to be selected for that position, which makes him the fourth highest ranking Democrat in the House.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2018\/11\/28\/lujan-elected-to-house-leadership-post\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAs Assistant Democratic Leader, I will welcome ideas from all corners of our Caucus to build our agenda, protect our majority, hold the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans accountable, and make a positive difference in people\u2019s lives,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cJust like the midterm elections, the road ahead won\u2019t be easy. But I\u2019m confident that if we are all willing to come to the table, listen, ask the hard questions, and put in the work, we will successfully meet this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luj\u00e1n led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a group tasked with electing Democrats to the U.S. House, throughout the past two election cycles. In 2016, Democrats gained six seats, and in 2018, Democrats gained 40 seats and the majority.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats also on Wednesday elected Steny Hoyer of Maryland as majority leader and James Clyburn of South Carolina as majority whip unanimously.<\/p>\n<p>Nationally, attention focused on Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who Democrats chose to be speaker of the House. To become speaker, she still needs a majority, or 218 votes, from the full Congress.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Some conservative Democrats oppose Pelosi, but they have so far failed to put forward another option.<\/p>\n<p>Some Democrats criticize Pelosi\u2019s age, saying there needs to be new blood in leadership. Yet, all three of the members of leadership ahead of Luj\u00e1n are in their 70s. Luj\u00e1n is 46.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party of New Mexico celebrated Luj\u00e1n\u2019s election to the position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew Mexico is lucky to have leaders who deliver for New Mexicans and also represent us proudly in the leadership of the Democratic Party,\u201d party chair Marg Elliston said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n was unanimously elected the assistant Democratic leader for the next Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3714,3326,3718,116],"class_list":["post-650794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-3rd-congressional-district","tag-ben-ray-lujan","tag-u-s-house","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650794","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=650794"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650799,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650794\/revisions\/650799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}