LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — A major Republican player was in Las Cruces on Wednesday to open a new “GOP Battle Station,” while about four miles away a small group of protesters gathered next to a mobile billboard.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, chaired by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, held a ceremonial opening of its new Battle Station Office in Las Cruces on Wednesday.

According to the NRCC, the office will be the base for a team seeking to re-elect former Congresswoman Yvette Herrell, who is seeking to recapture New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I think the fact that the Speaker was here shows how important this campaign is; there are only a limited number of districts in the country that are considered contested districts,” said Delanie Bomar, regional spokeswoman for the NRCC. “And the fact that the Speaker came here and took the time to be here and gather with his supporters shows how important this campaign really is to growing the majority in the House of Representatives in November.”

Herrell – a former real estate agent and four-term member of the New Mexico House of Representatives – represented the Second District from 2021 to 2023 before losing his seat to Congressman Gabe Vasquez by less than one percentage point in the 2022 midterm elections.

Bomar said the Battle Station will serve as a “hub” where the region’s “Republican enthusiasm can originate” and as a launching pad for door-to-door campaigning, phone calls and other volunteer efforts in the run-up to the election.

“I think the fact that the office is in Las Cruces and so many people from Las Cruces were here shows the enthusiasm here in town for Yvette,” Bomar said.

Speaker Johnson’s visit was not without critics, including ProgressNow New Mexico, which held a protest rally about four miles from the new Battle Station and used a mobile billboard to highlight Johnson and Herrell’s positions as “anti-abortion and anti-IVF supporters.”

“My message today is to Speakers Mike Johnson and Yvette Herrell … and to inform not only voters but the public that they are firmly opposed to abortion and still want to push Project 2025 and the accompanying rollback of access to reproductive health back to archaic times,” said Jackie Aguirre, reproductive justice manager at ProgressNow New Mexico.

Project 2025 is a reference to the 900-page “presidential transition” guide compiled by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation for right-wing groups.

Aguirre accused Johnson and Herrell of spreading “misinformation and disinformation” on a range of social justice issues.

“This is not the kind of person who represents New Mexico and New Mexico values,” Aguirre said.

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Less politically charged was the message of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC), a group fighting for recognition of the radiation poisoning that people in New Mexico still suffer from nearly eight decades after the Trinity bomb detonated.

TBDC co-founder Tina Cordova said the organization has introduced numerous bills in Congress over the past 14 years, including a bipartisan bill that is currently on Speaker Johnson’s desk.

“This year, the bills passed in the U.S. Senate by an overwhelming 69-30 vote and our President Biden has issued a statement of support,” Cordova said. “We have never been this close to getting this passed and for some reason (Speaker Johnson) will not allow a vote in the House.”

Cordova said she did not know what Speaker Johnson was “afraid” of.

“I don’t know why he’s hesitating,” she said. “It’s time for him to do the right thing.”

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