New Mexico governor launches campaign to recruit Texas medical workers

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham paid for full-page advertisements to run Sunday in five newspapers, including the Austin American-Statesman. Those ads included an open letter from the governor, where she framed her pitch around offering a different political environment for those practicing in Texas.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — New Mexico's governor is running a new coordinated campaign aimed at recruiting Texas medical workers to work in her state.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham paid for full-page advertisements to run Sunday in five newspapers, including the Austin American-Statesman. Those ads included an open letter from the governor, where she framed her pitch around offering a different political environment for those practicing in Texas.

"I know that legal restrictions on healthcare in Texas have created a heavy burden for medical practitioners — especially those of you now barred by law from providing the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare," Lujan Grisham's letter read. "It must be distressing that a draconian abortion ban has restricted your right to practice and turned it into a political weapon."

The ads also feature a link to a "Free to Provide" state website where approximately 120 medical facilities in New Mexico have now posted openings for positions that range from nurses to doctors. State leaders tell KXAN they'll circle back with these providers as early as next week to see whether New Mexico's campaign led to an increase in applicants.

"I certainly respect those of you who remain committed to caring for patients in Texas, but I also invite those of you who can no longer tolerate these restrictions to consider practicing next door in New Mexico," Lujan Grisham wrote. "We're fiercely committed to protecting medical freedoms here and we're taking steps to ensure that what happened in Texas never happens in New Mexico."

The state is spending about $400,000 to run this month-long campaign, which also features a series of at least six billboards placed around the Houston Medical Center to encourage workers to consider relocating to New Mexico.

Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, slammed this effort in a statement shared with KXAN Tuesday afternoon.

"People and businesses vote with their feet, and continually they are choosing to move to Texas more than any other state in the country," Mahaleris wrote. "Governor Lujan Grisham should focus on her state's rapidly declining population instead of political stunts."

He also included a link to a June study from the University of New Mexico showing the state's population growth is project to remain flat and get increasingly older.

KXAN is working to gather addition reaction to this effort from Texas leaders and share a story about that this evening on KXAN News at 6.