Conservative Hispanic woman censored by social media platform after announcing Republican campaign for New Mexico House of Representatives

Albuquerque, March 13— Last week, Republican Angelita Mejia, the only candidate running for NM State Representative District 58 in Chaves County, announced her candidacy for the office on Facebook. Included on her personal and campaign pages was a press release explaining how she has spent her career encouraging people to follow the rule of law, enter our country legally, and to become proud U.S. citizens. Her social media post included an appeal for ballot petition signatures which are required by New Mexico state law to become a candidate. The deadline for those signatures to be submitted was Tuesday, March 12, 2024, and her Facebook post mentioned the deadline.

Within 24 hours of Mejia making her post, Facebook shut both her personal and campaign pages down saying her post had violated the company's so-called "community standards." While they told her she could appeal their decision, the company offered no explanation as to why her pages have been removed. Mejia has made numerous attempts to contact Facebook, but she has been unable to speak with anyone at the company. Her account has been down for over five days and even though she has submitted all the information the company requested, she has not received any information from Facebook as to if and when her pages will return.

RPNM Chairman Steve Pearce issued the following statement:
"I call upon Facebook and specifically, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to immediately restore Angelita Mejia's personal account and campaign page. This is clearly an attempt by Facebook to silence a conservative Republican woman and to prevent her from being able to collect signatures needed to place her name on the ballot for the upcoming primary election," said Pearce.

"Fortunately, grassroots efforts were successful to get signatures for Mejia despite Facebook's attempt to censor conservative thought. Nonetheless, it is dangerous when they try to prevent someone from being able to exercise their freedom of speech to communicate with voters and constituents," he added.

Angelita Mejia added the following statement:
"Facebook not only owes me an explanation, but the company also owes an explanation to the people of Chaves County who next year will be my constituents," said Mejia. "Censorship is always wrong, regardless of when it happens to a conservative woman or a liberal one. In my case, Facebook's anti-conservative bias has been made very clear."

###

ABOUT ANGELITA MEJIA
Angelita Mejia has spent most of her life between Dexter and Roswell, where she attended Eastern New Mexico University. In 2003, Steve Pearce, the newly elected congressman from New Mexico, noticed her strong heart for service and hired her to be the Spanish speaking liaison in his congressional office, where she specialized in immigration and naturalization issues. During her tenure in Pearce's congressional office, she tirelessly encouraged and helped people to follow her family's example by obeying the immigration laws when coming to the United States.

In 2009, Mejia opened Nueva Esperanza in Roswell, a small business that has helped scores of people navigate the country's complex immigration laws to become naturalized citizens. She has organized many naturalization ceremonies to celebrate proud new Americans that have gone through the proper channels to be in the country legally.

Mejia has lived in Chaves County for over 30 years. Her husband of 29 years, Marco, graduated from Weed High School, and began working in the oil and gas industry for Sinclair Energy in Artesia. Angelita and Marco have one son, Marco Jr., who graduated from Dexter High School, lives in Hagerman and now works as a heavy equipment technician for Sweatt Construction. Marco Jr. and his wife have blessed Angelita and Marco with a grandson.

The Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) advances the ideals of individual liberties for the advancement of its citizens and the greater prosperity of our communities throughout New Mexico. Led by an Executive Board and its Chairman, former NM Congressman Steve Pearce, RPNM serves all New Mexicans via its headquarters in Albuquerque and can be contacted at (505) 298-3662.