Rep. John Block’s 2026 Session: Another Year of Invisibility and Betrayal for District 51

Alamogordo, NM – Three weeks into the 2026 legislative session and State Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) has once again distinguished himself by doing… absolutely nothing of note for Otero County.

While Democrats advance bills on rural hospitals, broadband expansion, and public safety funding — issues Block routinely claims to care about — the fringe  lawmaker has sponsored zero bills to gain traction based on local constituents needs, nor co-sponsored nothing of real substance for jobs creation or bread and butter issues for locals, and he has yet to speak on the House floor with any vigor nor garner any allies to move any District 51 priority to completion. It’s the same tired pattern residents have endured since he took office in 2023.

The list of Block’s failures keeps growing:

• Turned his back on Tularosa Basin Downwinders in 2025 by voting against a simple memorial acknowledging the deadly health impacts of uranium mining and Trinity Site fallout — then tried to gut the language because it might “stigmatize the industry.”

• Killed local voter choice by voting against SB 16, the semi-open primaries bill, ensuring that the state’s 330,000+ independent voters (including thousands in Otero County) remain locked out of choosing nominees in one-party dominated districts.

• Proposed taxing solar and wind farms which create jobs in his own district with HB 45 (2025) — a direct attack on renewable projects that could have brought jobs and clean energy to his own district — all to prop up dying fossil fuel funds. The net effect would have been a tax increase on local energy consumers.

• Sponsored gimmick bills that die in the first committee every session: “parental rights” culture-war nonsense, anti-vaccine mandates, and repealing red-flag laws — none of which ever help a single constituent pay a bill or fix a road.

• Failed to secure one dime of capital outlay for Alamogordo or Otero County priorities in the last two sessions despite Republicans holding the governor’s veto pen in previous years.

And then there’s the personal baggage: embroiled in a 2025 breach-of-contract lawsuit with an ex-partner that became public fodder, severely undercutting his endless preaching about “traditional family values” and “Christian conservative principles.”

Local voices are done pretending. From Cloudcroft to Tularosa, constituents openly call Block an “embarrassment,” a “Santa Fe influencer in a suit,” and “the laziest legislator in the Roundhouse.” Even some Republican voters now admit they re-elected him in 2024 only because the alternative was a Democrat.

With 2026 being his third full session, John Block has run out of excuses. Otero County deserves a representative who actually shows up, fights for the district, and puts people over industry donors and social-media clout.

So far in 2026? Crickets. Again.