Solomon Peña’s conspiracy to shoot up the homes of New Mexico Democrats, explained

In the latest example of how the refusal of former President Donald Trump’s election has fueled political violence in the US, Solomon Peña, a former Republican candidate for the New Mexico House, was arrested earlier this week for allegedly organizing a conspiracy to take over four state and local officials’ homes after refusing to vote. to accept the loss of the November election.

An ardent Trump supporter attended a pro-Trump rally in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, insurrection, Peña lost the race for New Mexico House District 14 to incumbent Democrat Miguel Garcia by more than 47 percentage points.

But he refused to confess, and allegedly conspired with four individuals to carry out the politically motivated shooting. He paid at least two to set fire to the home of a Democratic leader while driving a stolen car. He also tried to shoot an AR-15 rifle that was jammed at the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez, according to police.

No one was injured in the attacks, which took place between November and early January. But as former county commissioner Debbie O’Malley, one of the officials targeted, told NBC, Peña “could kill us.” He now faces at least 15 charges, including shooting at home, shooting from a motor vehicle, aggravated assault involving a deadly weapon, and conspiracy and criminal charges, but not attempted murder, according to legal filings in a New Mexico court.

The scale of the conspiracy makes this case unusual — this is not a lone wolf, but an elected office seeker who engaged multiple people over the course of several weeks to plan a targeted attack on Democrats. Overall, however, politically motivated violence directed at government officials and their families has become increasingly common, with last October’s violent attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at her home in San Francisco being one of the highest-profile incidents.

“This is a shocking example, but also a reminder of how elected officials are involved in spreading conspiracy theories and fueling violence that leads to insurgency,” said Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center, an organization focused on building inclusive democracies. “What we’re seeing now is the result of the way Donald Trump has opened the door to welcome bigot movements into mainstream politics, and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

Conspiracy, explained

Peña described his motivation on Twitter before the attack. He argued on election night that his opponent should “depending on the rigging” to win and declare on November 9, after the race was called, “I dissent. I am the king of MAGA.” A few days later, he admitted that he had never entered the race and said he was “researching my options.”

The next step was to show up at the door of two Democratic Bernalillo County commissioners and two state legislators to plead their case. They brought documents that said the election was fraudulent, according to Albuquerque police.

Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa told NBC News that he was seen as “disrespectful” and “aggressive” when he tried to argue that the votes he received did not match the ground game. (The district, which includes downtown Albuquerque, has long been blue, and there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.) O’Malley told NBC that he found his interaction with Peña “disturbing” because he was “angry. lost the election” and felt “unfair and untrue.” Both commissioners called police after the incident, and in O’Malley’s case, police patrolled his home days before the shooting.

The criminal complaint obtained by USA Today asserts that Peña was “tired of not winning the election for public office” and that he invited the conspirators to shoot at the houses of the members of parliament when they woke up with the aim of “causing death.” or at least injury.

During a raid on Lopez’s home on Jan. 3, the latest in a string of shootings, a bullet flew past her sleeping 10-year-old daughter, sending pieces of sheetrock and dust falling onto her bed, according to the complaint. The next morning, after dismissing the gunshots as fireworks, Lopez found a bullet hole in the side of the house.

He called the police, who found a shell casing in his home that matched the handgun seized in a traffic stop the night of the shooting. Police also found about 800 fentanyl pills and an assault rifle inside the vehicle, which was registered to Peña. The driver had an unrelated felony arrest warrant, but was later found to be one of Peña’s co-conspirators.

With the help of an informant who witnessed the shooting, police used cell phone records that pointed to Peña as the “mastermind” of the attack, finding that he had given addresses and instructions to fellow conspirators on how to carry out the shootings and pay them. they did, according to the complaint.

This is another example of political violence in the US

The attacks reflect an increasingly heightened threat environment for politicians in the US.

“Each case of violence has its own idiosyncratic elements, but the trend line is clear: There are individuals who plan attacks and cooperate with others to carry out armed attacks. People with opposing viewpoints are targeted with the aim of hurting or silencing them,” said Darrell West , senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

The number of threats against members of Congress increased significantly between 2017 and 2022, with the US Capitol Police investigating nearly 10,000 threats in 2021.

In addition to the attack on her husband, Pelosi’s home was also vandalized in December 2020. Republican Senator Susan Collins told the New York Times in October 2022 that an intruder had broken a storm window in her home in Bangor, Maine and said that “it wouldn’t surprise me if a senator or member of the House of Representatives was killed.” A man was also charged with the crime of stalking in July after shouting expletives outside Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Seattle home while armed with a semiautomatic pistol with live rounds.

After the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the Federal Election Commission ruled that members of Congress can use campaign funds to pay for private security services. Since then, private security spending has increased, especially among those with high national profiles and controversial legislative records, like Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), also among the Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.

But there has not been the same financial support for the security of state and local politicians, who are also on the front lines against anti-democratic movements and electoral rejection. That leaves officials like those in New Mexico largely dependent on private resources and local law enforcement to fend off attacks.

“The biggest social movement that caused it [insurrection] has continued to organize to build strength in communities across the country. And we see it mainly at the local level targeting democratic institutions,” Schubiner said.

The solution, he said, is not entirely to lie with the law enforcement; instead, Schubiner argued that the federal government should offer training and security resources to election officials and other public employees who are victims of harassment and intimidation by anti-democratic and bigoted groups. The risk of not doing so is too great, he said.

“What we see is that when local governments or community institutions become weak or fail, there are many examples of fanatical and extremist groups entering whatever vacuum exists,” he said.