New Mexico Senator Jay Block said, "It will take several years to recover if we do it right," in response to the state's ranking in WalletHub’s 2025 report on the best and worst states to raise a family. Block made this statement in a January 14 post on X.
"This state is still salvageable, but it will require Democrats to work with us on many issues," said Block, State Senator. "This will not be done in days, weeks, or months. It will take several years to recover if we do it right. However, we need the right leadership."
In his post, Block shared a KRQE News 13 report that highlighted the WalletHub study, which ranked New Mexico 50th among states for raising a family in 2025. The study evaluated states based on 50 metrics, including school quality, healthcare, median family income, and crime rates. Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Nebraska were ranked among the top ten states, while New Mexico was grouped with Mississippi, West Virginia, and Nevada at the bottom.
Screenshot State Senator Jay Block's Jan. 14 post on X
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The WalletHub report assigned New Mexico a total score of 32.40 compared to Massachusetts' top score of 68.88. According to the report, states were compared across five areas: family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability, and socioeconomics. The metrics included subcategories such as the share of families with young children, share of uninsured children, quality of public schools (double-weighted), public high school graduation rate, housing affordability, separation and divorce rate.
New Mexico has the lowest median family income and ranks 49th for childcare costs. The state placed 48th for the percentage of families in poverty and tied for 46th for violent crimes per capita.
WalletHub notes that data used for this ranking was sourced from various organizations including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, Child Care Aware of America as of September 19, 2024.
According to his website, Block is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and former nuclear weapons officer. He became the first Republican to win a seat on the Sandoval County Commission where he focused on economic development and public safety. He was endorsed by both firefighters' and sheriff's deputies' unions.
