Susana Martinez Can’t Help North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Governor

Susana Martinez Can’t Help North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Governor

Susana Martinez has two jobs: governor of New Mexico and fundraiser-in-chief for Republican governors across the country.

In the first one she’s not doing so hot. But in the second, she’s been pretty successful helping embattled Republicans raise millions of dollars to win reelection despite their agendas suppressing voter turnout, preserving lower pay and cutting back on healthcare options for women, and polluting our land, air and water at will.

But at least one GOP governor has finally done something so bad even Susana Martinez can’t save him.

But at least one GOP governor has finally done something so bad even Susana Martinez can’t save him.

The New Mexico Political Report and Santa Fe New Mexican report today that Governor Martinez unexpectedly cancelled a long-planned fundraising trip to help North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCory (R), the most vulnerable Republican governor, in the country raise much needed funds.

First, from NM Political Report:

Originally, the party scheduled Martinez to speak at the convention next month. Martinez is the head of the Republican Governors Association and frequently makes out-of-state trips. Recently, Martinez was the guest of honor at the New York Republican Party gala. She was largely ignored, however, and overshadowed by the three remaining Republican candidates for president who attended the gala.

A tweet announcing Martinez’s participation in the convention.

The North Carolina trip would have come at a time where the state is facing intense backlash after Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed a law that barred transgender individuals from using any bathroom but that of their birth gender.

McCrory called the state legislature into a special session just to pass the bill so he could sign it into law; during the regular session, a filibuster by some Democrats meant the bill did not pass. The legislation passed in just a day.

Many call the law discriminatory and it has had an effect on the state’s bottom line. PayPal announced they would no longer put a global operations center in Charlotte because of the law. Multiple cities and states banned official travel to the state.

Martinez’s spokesperson says she wasn’t cancelling the big event as a protest of the North Carolina law. Instead he says she had a sudden scheduling conflict come up. No word on what that might be.

The New Mexican explains more:

For about two weeks, the North Carolina Republican Party touted plans by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez to speak at its state convention next month. On Monday, however, a Martinez spokesman said she won’t be going to the Tar Heel State.

New Mexicans opposed to laws such as the one enacted in North Carolina reacted Monday to the idea that Martinez would accept a speaking engagement in that state.

“It is an offense to fair-minded New Mexicans that our governor would voluntarily participate in the GOP convention in North Carolina,” Amber Royster, executive director of Equality New Mexico, said Monday. “Regardless of her motivations, Gov. Martinez’s decision to attend this specific convention is an affront to our great state in which we deeply value equality and protecting the most vulnerable.”

Royster described the North Carolina law as “one of the most bigoted and hateful pieces of legislation in recent history.”

Royster described the North Carolina law as “one of the most bigoted and hateful pieces of legislation in recent history.”

Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales — who recently prohibited non-essential travel for city employees to North Carolina and Mississippi, another state with a law that critics say allows discrimination against gay people — released a statement before word of Martinez’s cancellation got out.

Being a bigot is hard in the 21st century.

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