Martin Heinrich (politician)

Martin Heinrich

Martin Trevor Heinrich (born October 17, 1971 in Fallon , Nevada ) is an American politician . From 2009 to 2013 he represented the 1st congressional electoral district of the state of New Mexico in the House of Representatives , and has been a member of the United States Senate since 2013 .

Family, education and work

Martin Heinrich attended the University of Missouri in Columbia until 1995 . He then studied engineering at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque between 2001 and 2002 . He then became the executive director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation , a not-for-profit foundation that aims to raise awareness of nature and the environment among young people. Heinrich also founded his own consulting company.

Martin Heinrich has two children with his wife Julie. He lives in Albuquerque.

Political career

Heinrich is a member of the Democratic Party . Between 2003 and 2007 he was a member of the Albuquerque City Council. He advocated an increase in the minimum wage, the creation of new jobs and the use of alternative energies such as wind and solar power. In 2006 he was chairman of the city council. In the 2008 congressional election , Heinrich prevailed for the Democrats with 55 percent of the vote against Republican Darren White and replaced Heather Wilson in the US House of Representatives, who had run unsuccessfully for the US Senate. Heinrich's election victory followed the national trend in favor of the Democrats, which culminated in Barack Obama's election as president. Martin Heinrich was a member of Congress from 2009 and was re-elected in 2010 . He was a member of the Armed Forces Committee and the Committee on Natural Resources .

After longtime US Senator Jeff Bingaman announced that he would not run again in 2012, Heinrich announced in April 2011 that he would run for Bingaman's successor in the US Senate. In the election on November 6, 2012 , he was able to prevail against his Republican predecessor in the House of Representatives, Heather Wilson, and took up his new office on January 3, 2013. The politically moderate left-of-center has quickly earned the reputation of an up-and-coming Democratic star and has occasionally been mentioned as a possible running mate of the presidential candidate Hillary Clinton . He had spoken out in favor of her in July 2014, months before Clinton's candidacy was announced.

In the 2018 election , Heinrich was the clear favorite against his Republican competitor Mick Rich. In August, Gary E. Johnson , who had previously been state governor for Republicans and a 2012 and 2016 presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, announced that he would run as the third candidate for the libertarians. Expectations from political observers that this could jeopardize Heinrich's election prospects were not confirmed, as polls showed Heinrich a wide lead over both Rich and Johnson. He refused to leave the election campaign that the Republicans had asked him to do in September. Heinrich won the election with 51 percent against Rich with 31 and Johnson with 15 percent.

Political positions

Heinrich is on the line of his party when it comes to issues such as abortion ( Pro-Choice ) and greater environmental protection and advocates concerns of the agriculture and food industry. At the same time, he has always taken more conservative positions, which is why he is considered a moderate democrat. In matters of gun ownership, for example, he spoke out against stronger nationwide regulation and in 2010 received the top grade A (complete agreement) from the National Rifle Association lobby group . It was only late - during the internal party preselection for the Senate seat in 2012 - that Heinrich spoke out in favor of equal-sex partnerships .

In terms of foreign policy, Heinrich and his fellow Senate colleagues Brian Schatz and Chris Murphy, who were around the same age and who were also relatively new, presented themselves in an article in Foreign Affairs from June 2015 as part of a new generation of democratic leaders on foreign policy issues, which the party's former heavyweights on the subject of Joe Biden , John Kerry , Joe Lieberman and Daniel Inouye tried to replace after leaving the legislature. A new “ progressive ” foreign policy is to emerge by means of a new “ Marshall Plan ” for crisis regions, the insistence on the approval of Congress for all military actions and a ban on torture, as well as greater attention to climate change . Heinrich supports President Obama's negotiated solution in the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program as a "historic opportunity".

Web links

• Martin Heinrich (politician) in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• US Senate personal website

supporting documents

1. ↑ Kyle Trygstad: Henry Makes NM Senate Bid Official. In: Roll Call , April 2, 2011.
2. ^ David Catanese: The Leading Contender for Hillary's Veep. In: US News & World Report , October 17, 2015.
3. ^ Maggie Haberman: Heinrich Backs Hillary Clinton. In: Politico , July 11, 2014.
4. ↑ Tris DeRoma: Gary Johnson remains contender for US Senate. In: Los Alamos Monitor , September 24, 2018.
5. ^ New Mexico US Senate Election Results. In: The New York Times , November 7, 2018.
6. ^ Sen. Martin Heinrich Recognized as New Senate Standard Bearer for Dietary Supplements.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: AHPA.org , December 12, 2014 (English).  
7. ↑ Matt Reich Bach: NRA Endorses Henry Lujan, Teague. ( Memento of October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: The New Mexico Independent , October 4, 2010 (English).
8. ↑ Tim Cavanaugh: 21 Democrats Who Could (Maybe) Take Hillary Clinton's Place in 2016. In: The Washington Examiner , March 14, 2015 (English).
9. ↑ Chris Murphy, Brian Schatz, Martin Heinrich: Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy. What Congress Must Do. In: Foreign Affairs , June 8, 2015 (in English, freely accessible only at the beginning).
10. ↑ Gillian Roberts: Senate's Young Guns Seek Foreign Policy Shift. In: CQ Weekly , July 3, 2015, here on Heinrich's Senate website.
11. ^ Martin Heinrich: Iran Deal is a Historic Opportunity. In: Albuquerque Journal , July 30, 2015.