Growing up in a small town with a one-room schoolhouse on a Native American reservation in South Dakota, state Rep. Liz Thomson and her six siblings got along.
Sure, the siblings had their fair share of typical broomsticks, but the six sisters and their late brother were close.
Their rural environment did not give them much choice.
“We had to be friends with our brothers because there was no one else around, basically,” Thomson recalled with fondness in his voice.
“If you didn’t play with your brothers, you didn’t play,” he said. “I mean, looking back, our nearest neighbor was probably a mile away, and whether they had kids or not was a different story.”
So is the relationship between siblings these days, and November’s general election is on full display.
Thomson, 62, a progressive Democrat who was first elected in 2012 and has represented the district continuously since 2017 (she lost the 2014 election but won the seat two years later), is running for the re-election in House District 24, which encompasses one of the oldest parts of Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights.
Her older sister, Mary Ingham, 67, is also on the ballot, but for a different legislative seat. He is running in House District 10, a heavily Democratic district that covers the far South Valley in unincorporated Bernalillo County and parts of southeast Albuquerque.
Unlike her sister, however, Ingham is a pro-life Republican.
“It’s a rare thing that two of us are crazy enough to do that,” joked Ingham.
“It’s a humorous thing to consider, especially being on opposite sides of the fence, so to speak,” he later said. “I think it’s a point of interest for a lot of people that this has happened, and I think it’s a microcosm of the state that there are people there. [within the same family] who have different values and beliefs”.
Their differences extend far beyond mere party affiliation.
While Ingham was less open about the situation, Thomson said her sister’s decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine caused a rift between the siblings, who had remained “really close” until the pandemic came.
“Since COVID started, there’s been a shift,” Thomson said.
Ingham “is a COVID, well, she wasn’t vaccinated, I’ll just say that, and that was difficult for a lot of our family,” Thomson said. “I don’t want to talk about who or what, but some couples, I will say, have major health issues that COVID would be really, really bad, and she and her husband didn’t get vaccinated, and that really created a rift in the family because we were all trying to protect the person who didn’t have immunity, so we distanced ourselves from her just on health.”
Thomson said she and her other sisters were “very aware” of COVID-19, wore face masks and got vaccinated as soon as they could.
“Our mother was a nurse,” he said, adding that his mother worked with children with polio during her training.
“My mother was terrified that her children would get polio, and my older sister told me recently that when the polio vaccine was developed, my mother was almost giddy” that she could vaccinate three of her daughters in that time, he said.
“She always told us, ‘People who don’t believe in vaccines haven’t seen the diseases.’ I have seen the diseases. You’re all getting vaccinated for anything, for everything, as soon as you can,” Thomson recalled. “That’s how we were all raised. The remaining sisters were excited to get their COVID shots, and Mary chose to not to, and that really caused a rift.”
Ingham declined to reveal whether or not she has been vaccinated against COVID-19 or how she feels about the vaccine.
“Our health information is private, so I really don’t want to put it in the paper,” she said.
Ingham, however, said the COVID-19 vaccine played a role in the fight with her sister.
“It hurts my heart,” she said, adding that she and her sister are working “slowly” to reconcile their relationship and recently spoke at a family reunion in Oregon.
“I really look forward to building bridges while in office with my family and other people as well,” he said. “I think part of the problem is that the media has really pushed a narrative against people who, you know, may or may not be vaccinated. That’s not good. I think we have to look at the facts and trust people in the ‘health care’.
Ingham said New Mexico’s COVID-19 restrictions were being exaggerated.
“As we know now, COVID had the biggest impact on the elderly,” he said. “The kids weren’t vulnerable, so I think to take them out of school, to close the schools, to take away that freedom and the ability to learn, we’re now looking at the impact of that, of the loss of children. two years of their education”.
Despite their political and personal differences, both said they would work across the aisle if both won the election.
“I’m sure there are things we could, I hope, agree on,” said Thomson, who, like her older sister, pursued a career in physical therapy.
They wouldn’t be the first siblings to serve in the Legislature if they win their races.
At least 12 sets of brothers, including four brothers named Montoya who held office around the 1960s and 1970s, have served in the New Mexico Legislature, said senior legislative librarian Joanne Vandestreek.
Vandestreek said one of the lists in the state database has question marks next to it, and he would need more time to investigate whether there have been 13 sibling groups in the Legislature.
Two couples served at the same time: Rep. Abel McBride and Sen. Robert McBride and Sen. Michael Sanchez and former Speaker of the House Raymond Sanchez.
The November election will determine whether Thomson and Ingham will be the third set of brothers to serve concurrently.
Ingham is running against Democrat G. Andrés Romero, who has served in the state House of Representatives since 2015.
Romero said his opponent’s relationship with a fellow House Democrat is not a factor in his campaign. He said he did not ask Thomson to endorse his candidacy, adding that he does not normally ask his colleagues for their support.
“Honestly, it’s just a regular election cycle,” he said.
Thomson’s opponent, Khalid Emshadi, is taking a different approach. Last month, she tweeted a photo of herself with Ingham and her husband, Stewart, calling them her “true supporters” to win against Thomson in November.
“They said to me, ‘Khalid, we support you. We need you to win,” he said. “When we took that picture, the picture was on [Ingham’s] request She said, “Khalid, post it, and we wish you all the best in winning the race against Liz.” “
Thomson said she was “a bit disappointed” to see the photo on Twitter.
“We were raised to be a family,” he said. “Sure, we have our fights and stuff, but in public, you’re still a family and you support each other, even if you’re not necessarily excited about what the other person is doing or whatever, so It felt like a slap in the face to me. on the face that I would support my opponent.”
Asked whether he had supported Emshadi, Ingham initially refused to answer the question.
“I support my sister as a sister … and I support people who have the same values that I have in terms of voters,” she said.
Ingham went on to say that he cannot vote in Thomson and Emshadi’s legislative race because he lives in a different district. Asked who he would vote for if he did, Ingham reiterated his pro-life stance, saying he would “support the candidate who has that same view of life and that would be Mr Emshadi”.
Emshadi called Ingham, who ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Micheal Padilla two years ago, a conservative woman who believes in God, family and country.
“The rest of the people don’t. I mean his sister,” he said.
Thomson, who is an unapologetic progressive, said everyone should have a chance to throw their hat in the ring.
“She says the people of the South Valley deserve a choice, and that’s fine,” he said. “I don’t agree with their politics.”
Thomson said he has considered burying the hatchet with his sister.
“I miss her, and I thought about it, but the COVID is still here and she’s not vaccinated yet,” he said. “I still love my sister. I will always love my sister. She will always be my sister, but right now, the selfishness is too much for me to handle.
Although they spoke recently, Ingham said his relationship with his sister is “quite distant”.
“Covid has been a big factor in that,” he said. “It’s been hard. It’s divided many families, and it’s quite sad.”
Although she and Thomson “live separate lives,” Ingham said they respect each other.
“We will always love each other and we will always be sisters,” she said.
