Sarah Silva

Sarah Silva was born in Vado, New Mexico. She earned a high school diploma from Gadsden High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of San Francisco. Her career experience includes owning a consulting business. Silva has served as a board member for the Native Land Institute.[1][2]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Sarah was born in Vado and raised in the Mesilla Valley. She grew up in a farming community that instilled in her the values of honesty, integrity, hard work, and optimism. A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Sarah won the Pedro Arrupe award, which is given for the promotion of justice and desire to seek the greatest good. Sarah has applied the values she learned growing up to her work as an organizer around the country, and she has successfully organized campaigns that generate progress for people.

Sarah moved back to the Mesilla Valley in 2009 after finishing college and organizing in the Bay area. She has lived in House District 53 for more than eight years.

Since moving back to New Mexico, Sarah has worked tirelessly alongside others to organize successful campaigns to hold big banks accountable, protect more than 200 families from foreclosure in Southern New Mexico, raise the minimum wage in Las Cruces, designate the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks as a national monument, support young immigrants applying for legal status through DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and incorporate Anthony, N.M., as a city. Sarah currently owns a consulting business; through it she trains and coaches community-oriented people and organizations. She is a board member for the Native Land Institute.

In her free time she enjoys music, Star Wars, gardening and spending time outdoors hiking, birding and hunting

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

You wouldn’t know it from politicians; but folks in House District 53 stand largely united on the values and hopes we have for our families: ensuring a bright future for our kids, security and health for our aging parents, and getting dinner on the table and being home in time to eat it.Whether I’m working with people across the state to help them run their organizations and businesses or organizing parents for our kids’ next cross country meet I see our strength grounded in our ability to work together to get things done.

From these conversations, I’ve been able to work with Democrats and Republicans alike to sponsor and pass legislation that meets our community’s needs, because we need practical solutions, not extremist ideology.Finally fixing our outdated medical malpractice law that was forcing doctors to leave our state. Between 2019 and 2024, 248 New Mexican doctors left the state, making New Mexico the only state in the nation that saw a decline in physicians.

Increased protection for children at CYFD by forbidding staff to delete data from their telecommunications devices.

Streamlined funding for local law enforcement agencies to recruit, retain, and train new public safety personnel, including police, firefighters, and corrections officers.

Created an interstate compact to allow licensed social workers to operate in NM providing immediate relief to law enforcement and other agencies addressing the growing epidemic of mental and behavioral health issues.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Expand access to healthcare: Last year was a good start and now we need to double down on increasing access to doctors and other providers. We can start by creating more interstate medical compacts.

Create more good jobs: Good jobs keep young people here. I’ve been working with the community college and unions to develop more trade programs. And when we have big job creation opportunities like Project Jupiter or the Meta Data Center in El Paso, we must ensure the jobs go to New Mexicans, renewable energy standards are met, and we protect our existing water supply.

Build basic services: We need affordable housing throughout our district, better caretaking of historic cemeteries, and so much more infrastructure in Chaparral.

Sarah Silva did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2024 Candidate Connection survey.