Jacob Rodney Candelaria (born 1987) is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the

New Mexico Senate The New Mexico Senate ( es, Senado de Nuevo México) is the upper house of the New Mexico State Legislature. The Senate consists of 42 members, with each senator representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts across the state ...

for the 26th district from 2013 to 2022. First elected in 2012 as a Democrat, he later left the party in 2021 to become an independent. On December 6, 2021, Candelaria announced that he was changing his party affiliation from "Democrat" to "

Decline to State Decline to State (DTS) was an affiliation designation on the California voter registration form that allows voters to register to vote without choosing a party affiliation. It is similar to what in other states would be called declaring oneself as ...

". Candelaria was the first openly gay man elected to the New Mexico Legislature.

Early life and career

Candelaria was born in Albuquerque, and brought up by his grandmother Elodia Gloria Candelaria. Candelaria attended St. Pius X High School, and went on to earn an A.B. from the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 2009 after completing a 102-page long senior thesis, titled "Contemporary Venezuelan Oil Policy: An Institutional Analysis", under the supervision of Stanley Katz. At Princeton, Candelaria was a member of

The Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...

and

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the Calendar of saints, feast day of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony the Great. The frater ...

Career

Candelaria returned to Albuquerque after graduating from Princeton, working for Think New Mexico, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee and Ben Luján, the speaker of the

New Mexico House of Representatives ) is the lower house of the New Mexico State Legislature. There are 70 members of the House. Each member represents roughly 25,980 residents of New Mexico. The most recent elections were held on November 3, 2020. Composition Leadership Cu ...

. In August 2011, he was appointed president and CEO of Equality New Mexico, the state's largest gay rights organization. Candelaria is the owner and managing partner of his own law firm, Candelaria Law LLC., which opened in October 2019. Candelaria’s law firm focuses in the areas of civil rights, workers compensation, criminal defense, cannabis law, and complex civil litigation. Candelaria Law LLC counts New Mexico Top Organics-Ultra Health LLC, New Mexico’s largest vertically integrated cannabis company, among its clients.

New Mexico Senate

On March 5, 2012, Candelaria announced his candidacy for the New Mexico Senate, seeking the Democratic nomination in the 26th district. He was initially one of four Democrats to have filed for the seat, including incumbent Sen.

Bernadette Sanchez Bernadette M. Sanchez (born May 20, 1953) is an American politician and a Democratic former member of the New Mexico Senate, representing the 26th District since 2001. She did not seek re-election in 2012 and was succeeded by Democrat Jacob Can ...

. However, Sanchez abandoned her re-election bid on March 23, citing a desire to concentrate on her health. Three days later, Steve D. Gallegos, a former

Albuquerque City Council The Albuquerque City Council is the elected legislative authority of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It consists of nine members, elected from respective districts of the city on a non-partisan basis. The form of city government is mayor–c ...

man and

Bernalillo County Bernalillo County () is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Mexico.Bernalillo ...

Commissioner, dropped his bid for the seat and endorsed Candelaria. The Democratic primary election held on June 5, 2012 was therefore a two-way fight between Candelaria and opponent Carlos Jose Villanueva. Candelaria took 69% of the vote, winning 1,835 votes to Villanueva's 828. In 2017, Candelaria sponsored legislation to ban

Gay conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and clin ...

in New Mexico. The legislation passed both the state House and Senate with substantial bi-partisan margins. The bill was ultimately signed into law by Republican Governor

Susana Martinez Susana Martinez (born July 14, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 31st governor of New Mexico from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, she served as chair of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) from 2015 to 2016. She ...

. Candelaria was the lead sponsor and chief legislative architect of the 2019 New Mexico Energy Transition Act. The ETA amended New Mexico’s renewable energy portfolio standards to require that all investor owned utilities and rural electric collaboratives transition to one-hundred percent renewable electricity generation by 2045. The ETA also authorized the Public Service Compant of New Mexico or PNM, the state’s largest investor owned utility, to issue securitized bonds to retire the utility’s remaining assets in the San Juan Generating Station, a coal fire plant, and it’s affiliated coal mine. The law appropriates savings that result from lower interest rates on a utility’s securitized bonds into three state administered funds for economic development, worker re training, and environmental remediation in communities effected by the closure of the San Juan Generating Station. On October 24, 2020, Candelaria denounced an anti-lockdown protest held at the New Mexico Capitol Building in a television appearance. Following this, he received a number of anonymous threats via phone calls, with one including

homophobic slurs LGBT slang, LGBT speak, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBT people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBT community identify themselves ...

and another saying that “we’re going to get you out one way or another", according to Candelaria. In response to these threats, Candelaria left his

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

apartment and sought police protection. Candelaria announced on December 6, 2021, that he was switching his party affiliation from "Democrat" to "Decline to State" following dissatisfaction with the "extreme partisanship" of the Democratic controlled

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

process in New Mexico. During the 2022 regular session of the New Mexico Legislature, Candelaria successfully added an amendment to a piece of omnibus criminal justice reform legislation passed that year and later signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham which prohibits the use of the Gay Panic Defense in criminal cases in the state. Candelaria retired from the Senate on October 19, 2022. In his retirement letter to Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the New Mexico Secretary of State, Candelaria said that he could no longer balance the demands of his private law practice, and a desire to start a family with his husband, with volunteer service in the Senate. New Mexico is the last U.S. State with a volunteer Legislature. Members receive a per-diem for days they are in session or attending legislative interim committee meetings, but are not paid a salary or other benefits.

Personal life

Candelaria is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. He is the first gay man to serve in the

New Mexico Legislature The New Mexico Legislature ( es, Legislatura de Nuevo México) is the legislative branch of the state government of New Mexico. It is a bicameral body made up of the New Mexico House of Representatives and the New Mexico Senate. History The Ne ...

and only the second

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

person, after

state Senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...

Liz Stefanics. Candelaria's campaign won the support of the

Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund The LGBTQ Victory Fund (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund), commonly shortened to Victory Fund, is an American political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT, LGBTQ public officials in the United States. Vict ...

. Candelaria married his husband, a resident physician at the University of New Mexico Hospital specializing in infectious diseases, in May 2019 at a ceremony in Santa Fe officiated by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Candelaria’s husband is a member of the Tillery family of New Mexico car dealers.

References

External links

Senator Jacob R. Candelaria - (D)
at