Albuquerque GOP headquarters targeted in alleged arson: 'Direct assault on our values'
The alleged incident happened early Sunday morning after the organization shared images showing the damage to the entryway of the building.
The Albuquerque Fire Department also confirmed the alleged attack, saying they were dispatched to the call right before 6 a.m. and said the fire was brought under control within five minutes of fire crews' arrival, the department said in a post on their Facebook page.
The structure suffered damage to the front entryway and smoke damage throughout the building, the department said, and added that there were no injuries to civilians or firefighters reported.
The fire department, along with the Albuquerque Police Department, said this is an active and ongoing joint FBI/ATF investigation.
Republican Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Amy Barela shared the images in a post on X, claiming the alleged vandalism was "a deliberate act of arson which also included spray-painting the words 'ICE=KKK.'
"This horrific attack, fueled by hatred and intolerance, is a direct assault on our values, freedoms, and our right to political expression," Barela wrote.
Barela continued, stating that this alleged action "is not an isolated incident."
"It is part of a disturbing pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued our country—fueled in part by the silence and implicit encouragement from progressive leaders who refuse to condemn these acts," Barela said.
The chairwoman added that they are working closely with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), local law enforcement, and federal investigators and "are committed to providing every piece of evidence necessary to bring those responsible to justice and ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
"We are deeply relieved that no one was harmed in what could have been a tragic and deadly attack," the chairwoman wrote.
"Those who resort to violence to undermine our state and nation must be held accountable, and our state leaders must reinforce through decisive action that these cowardly attacks will not be tolerated."
In response to the organization's claims, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of New Mexico told Fox News Digital that they condemn any actions taken against the GOP and hope whoever is responsible for the alleged attack is caught.
"The Democratic Party of New Mexico condemns any vandalism at the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters as strongly as possible," the statement read.
"We firmly maintain that this sort of act has absolutely no place in our Democracy, and that peaceful discourse and organization are the only ways to approach political differences in our country. We hope whoever is responsible is found and held accountable."
Fox News Digital reached out to FBI Albuquerque for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
a few seconds ago
- Los Angeles Times
Why many voters in deep-red Northern California are fuming about Newsom's maps
COTTONWOOD — When the talk turned to politics at the OK Corral bar in this historic stagecoach town on Tuesday night, retired nurse Ovie Hays, 77, spoke for most of the room when she summed up her view of Gov. Gavin Newsom's redistricting plan. 'I don't want Democrats around,' she said. 'They have gone too far in controlling us. We won't have a say in anything.' Nearby, a man in hard-won cowboy boots agreed with Hays — using much more colorful language. He works as a ranch hand and said he'd just come from fixing a goat pen. 'The morons in charge, and the morons that put [those] morons in charge need to understand where their food comes from,' he said. He declined to see his name printed, like a lot of folks in this part of Shasta County and neighboring counties. In its current form, California's 1st Congressional District, which sweeps south from the Oregon border almost to Sacramento, is larger than Massachusetts or Maryland or eight other states. This is farm and forest country. From the glittering peaks and dense forests of Mt. Shasta and the Sierra Nevada, rivers course down to the valley floor, to vast fields of rice, endless orchards of peaches and golden, rolling grassland full of more cows than people. Voters here are concerned with policies that affect their water supply and forests, given that the timber industry limps along here and fires have ravaged the area in recent years. This is also Republican country. For the last 12 years, this district has been represented by Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a rice farmer from Oroville who is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. But if voters approve the redistricting plan in November, the deep-red bastion that is LaMalfa's district will be cleaved into three pieces, each of them diluted with enough Democratic votes that they could all turn blue. The northern half of the district would be joined to a coastal district that would stretch all the way down to the Golden Gate Bridge, while the southern half would be jigsawed into two districts that would draw in voters from the Bay Area and wine country. Northern California finds itself in this situation because of power plays unleashed by President Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Newsom and others. To ensure GOP control of the House of Representatives, Trump pressured Abbott to redraw Texas' congressional maps so Republicans could take more seats. Newsom responded by threatening to redraw California's maps to favor Democrats, while saying he'd holster this pistol if Texas did the same. The California Legislature is expected to approve a plan Thursday that would put new maps on the November ballot, along with a a constitutional amendment that would override the state's voter-approved, independent redistricting commission. If voters approve the new maps, they would go into effect only if another state performs mid-decade redistricting. Under the proposal, Democrats could pick up five seats currently held by Republicans, while also bolstering some vulnerable Democratic incumbents in purple districts. Now, voters in Northern California and other parts of the state find themselves at the center of a showdown. And from Marysville to Redding this week, many — including those who call themselves Democrats — said they were outraged at what they saw as another example of urban California imposing its will on rural California, areas that city people generally ignore and don't understand. 'Their needs and their wants are completely different than what we need here,' said Pamela Davis, 40, who was loading bags of chicken feed into the back of her SUV in Yuba City. Her children scrambled into their car seats, chatting happily about the cows and ducks they have at home on their farm. Davis, who said she voted for LaMalfa, said voters in California's cities have no understanding of water regulations or other policies vitally important to agriculture, even though what happens in farming areas is crucial to the state overall. 'We're out here growing food for everybody,' she said. 'Water is an issue all the time. That kind of stuff needs to be at the top of everybody's mind.' For years, folks in the so-called north state have chafed at life under the rule of California's liberal politicians. This region is whiter, more rural, more conservative and poorer than the rest of the state. They have long bemoaned that their property rights, grazing rights and water rights are under siege. They complain that the state's high taxes and cost of living are crushing people's dreams. The grievances run so deep that in recent years many residents have embraced a decades-old idea of seceding from California and forming a 'State of Jefferson.' Some residents, including LaMalfa, said if redistricting were to go through, it could further fuel those sentiments. And even some voters who said they abhorred Trump and LaMalfa and planned to vote in favor of the redistricting plan said they worried about the precedent of diluting the rural vote. Gail Mandaville, 76, was sitting with her book group in Chico and said she was in favor of the plan. 'I just am really, really afraid of the way the country is going,' the retired teacher said. 'I admire Newsom for standing up and doing something.' Across the table, Kim Heuckel, 58, said she agreed but also wondered whether a member of Congress from a more urban area could properly represent the needs of her district. 'I'm sorry, but they don't know the farmlands,' she said. 'We need our farmers.' We do, chimed in Rebecca Willi, 74, a retired hospice worker, but 'all the things we stand for are going down the drain,' and if the redistricting in Texas goes forward, 'we have to offset it because there is too much at stake.' In an interview, LaMalfa predicted that California's voters would reject the redistricting plan. 'We're not going anywhere without a fight,' he said. But should it pass, he predicted that his constituents would suffer. 'We don't have Sausalito values in this district,' he said, adding that politicians in the newly redrawn districts would be 'playing to Bay Area voters; they won't be playing towards us at all.' One of the biggest issues in his district recently, he noted, has been concern over wolves, who have been roaming ranch lands, killing cattle and enraging ranchers and other property owners. With redistricting, he said, 'if it doesn't go to the dogs, it will go to the wolves.'
The Hill
a few seconds ago
- The Hill
Pesticides put MAHA's power to the test
The New York Times reported last week that a draft of the Trump administration's upcoming MAHA report does not call for new restrictions on pesticides and describes existing procedures as 'robust.' MAHA-aligned activists recoiled. 'The MAHA draft report stating that the EPA's [Environmental Protection Agency] pesticide review process is 'robust' is the biggest joke in American history. And it's not funny. It's deadly,' Zen Honeycutt, founder of the activist group Moms Across America, wrote in a post on the social platform X. Meanwhile, a Republican-authored House Appropriations bill seeks to block pesticide labels that go beyond what the EPA uses based on its current human health risk assessment. During a markup last month, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the Interior-Environment Appropriations subcommittee, said the measure says 'states cannot require a pesticide label that is different from the EPA label.' 'The language ensures that we do not have a patchwork of state labeling requirements. It ensures that one state is not establishing the label for the rest of the states,' Simpson said, adding that his comments were meant to be clarifying for all the ' MAHA moms that are out there that are concerned about this that have been calling.' But critics say such a move could prevent the use of updated science on pesticide labels. 'The language in here … says that EPA should only update labels according to the human health risk assessment. EPA, by law, is required to do those human health risk assessments every 15 years, but they often don't complete those in time,' said Geoff Horsfield, policy director at the Environmental Working Group. 'The way the law works currently is states have the power to do additional addendums, and that's where you see, say, a state requires an additional setback so that you can't spray within 250 feet of a school, or you're required to wear additional types of PPE [personal protective equipment],' he continued. 'Those types of restrictions are usually included in a label addendum … and those types of tweaks would be essentially prohibited by this language.' Also causing controversy is another provision related to 'forever chemicals,' toxic substances linked to diseases including cancer and have become widespread in the environment. The measure seeks to bar the EPA from enforcing a draft report that found that food from farms contaminated with these chemicals may pose cancer risks. MAHA activists have slammed both provisions, saying in a letter to President Trump that GOP support for the measures is 'unconscionable.'
San Francisco Chronicle
a few seconds ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mike Collins argues he can unite Georgia GOP in challenge to Democratic US Sen. Jon Ossoff
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — Second-term Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins is seeking to solidify support as he seeks the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026. Collins, who'd declared his intent to run in July, officially launched his candidacy Tuesday in his hometown of Jackson and then spoke Wednesday at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Columbus. He's trying to appeal to both President Donald Trump's base and more traditional business conservatives. The owner of a trucking company and son of a former congressman, Collins has won endorsements from dozens of Republican state lawmakers, despite GOP Gov. Brian Kemp backing newcomer Derek Dooley. Fellow GOP congressman Buddy Carter also is in the race. Collins argues he can unite the party. 'They know I'm MAGA — everybody knows that,' Collins said. 'But they also know that I can talk to the more moderate Republicans that we have out there.' Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent seeking reelection in 2026 from a state that Trump won, making him a top GOP target. Republicans had hoped that Kemp himself would run, but he declined. Kemp and Trump had discussed seeking a mutual candidate to challenge Ossoff, but Trump hasn't chosen yet. Collins and his backers say they believe Trump will ultimately back Collins. 'I think it's a matter of time," said Bruce LeVell, who headed Trump's national diversity coalition in 2016 and spoke at Collins' Tuesday rally. Carter and Dooley are also seeking Trump's nod. Carter, who calls himself a 'MAGA' warrior, touted his support for Trump's budget law Wednesday and called for looser environmental and regulatory permitting. He said he hopes to win Trump's endorsement 'sooner rather than later' and expressed confidence that his fundraising would let him keep pace with other Republicans. 'I am obviously the conservative candidate,' Carter said. 'I'm the one who has been a mayor. I've been in the state legislature. I've been in Congress for 10 years. And my voting record is clear, I've been voting with Donald Trump 98% of the time.' Carter was mayor of the city of Pooler outside Savannah. Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach and son of the University of Georgia's legendary football head coach Vince Dooley, attended Wednesday's luncheon but declined interview requests. He's been setting up a run as a political outsider. Ossoff made his own case to the business community. On Wednesday, in a question-and-answer session before the chamber, he never mentioned Trump by name. He spoke to less partisan issues like supporting veterans' health care and seeking money for Georgia's military bases. But he did make the case that the Trump administration was hurting the United States' standing in the world by scaling back on diplomacy and international aid while cutting U.S. research and incentives for new technologies and roiling trade with new tariffs. 'Frankly we are engaged in tremendous self-harm right now in this competition with China,' Ossoff said. The national party has been attacking Ossoff, including a current round of mailers and ads arguing he backed higher taxes because he opposed Trump's budget bill. Collins is touting a list of supporters from each of Georgia's 159 counties, including state lawmakers and county leaders, building the idea that the party is choosing him even if Kemp isn't behind him. While it's common for campaigns to release such lists, Collins released his at a very early stage. He also has at least one supporter from each county when the state Republican Party doesn't have an organized committee in each county. 'I do think that Mike checks all the boxes,' said Ben Tarbutton III, a longtime Georgia business leader who is serving as Collins' finance chairman. Tarbutton was chairman of the Georgia Chamber when it endorsed Kemp's reelection bid in 2022. Collins also had some well-wishers present Tuesday who haven't endorsed him, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, another Jackson resident whom Trump has endorsed in his Republican bid for governor. Two top GOP contenders for lieutenant governor also attended. 'I don't know what the hell Brian Kemp is doing," LeVell said. "I have no idea.'
