Xochitl Torres Small


Xochitl Liana Torres Small is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for. Her district is the largest by area in the nation outside of the at-large congressional districts and covers the southern half of New Mexico, including Roswell, Carlsbad, Las Cruces and southern Albuquerque. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and career

Xochitl Liana Torres was born on November 15, 1984, in Portland, Oregon, to Marcos and Cynthia "Cynta" Torres. Marcos and Cynta were both educators, Marcos with child care providers, parents and fathers, Cynta as a public school special education teacher. Marcos also worked as a social worker in child protective services and as a union leader. Torres Small was raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
After graduating high school from Mayfield High School in absentia while she earned her International Baccalaureate Diploma from Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Eswatini, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Torres Small worked as a field representative for U.S. Senator Tom Udall from 2009 to 2012. She was a federal law clerk in the New Mexico District from 2015 to 2016. She was a water attorney with the Kemp Smith law firm.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018

In the 2018 elections, Torres Small ran as a Democrat for the open United States House of Representatives seat in. The Republican incumbent, Steve Pearce, declined to run for reelection in order to run for Governor of New Mexico. Torres Small defeated Madeline Hildebrandt in the Democratic Party primary election, and defeated Republican nominee Yvette Herrell in the November 6, 2018, general election. Torres Small ran as a moderate Democrat.
The results were close on election night, with Herrell in the lead at the end of the night and some New Mexico media organizations projecting that Herrell would win. The next day, more ballots were counted which narrowed Herrell's lead, and media organizations rescinded their projections. On November 7, 2018, following the final absentee ballot counts, Torres Small was declared the winner by the New Mexico Secretary of State.

Tenure

In her first week in office, she and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus traveled to the United States Border Patrol station at Alamogordo, New Mexico, where Felipe Gómez Alonzo, an eight-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, died in custody.

Committee assignments

Personal life

In 2016, Small's husband, Nathan Small, was elected in District 36 as a Democratic member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. He ran for reelection in 2018, winning with 59.9% of the vote. She is a Lutheran.