U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez is facing new scrutiny after a report revealed his social media accounts posted New Mexico district content while he was actually traveling to Alaska on a privately sponsored backpacking trip tied to a conservation dark money group led by a Democratic mega-donor.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Vasquez’s official X account posted on Aug. 10, 2025, about a visit to Hobbs High School, making it appear to casual readers as though the Democrat congressman was in southeastern New Mexico.
“I visited Hobbs High School to help serve lunch and hear about how school meals are keeping kids healthy and focused,” the post read. “Free school meal programs are a lifeline that our kids can’t afford to lose.”
But according to post-travel disclosure forms filed with the House Committee on Ethics, Vasquez was not in Hobbs that day. He was flying to Alaska for a trip sponsored by the American Lands Project, a dark money grou[ that describes its mission as connecting policymakers with “our country’s irreplaceable public lands and waters.”
The reported value of the trip, including transportation, lodging, meals, and other expenses for Vasquez, was approximately $11,535, according to the New Mexican.
The American Lands Project’s board president is identified as Thomas Campion, a conservationist who has opposed President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand oil and gas leasing in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The trip was described in disclosure paperwork as a “fact-finding trip to experience and learn firsthand about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and meet with local residents that rely on these lands.”
Vasquez’s office defended the timed social media posts as standard practice.
“It’s pretty common to post on social after we do events, which is why in any of those posts, we don’t say ‘today,’” Jake Morel, Vasquez’s press secretary and digital director, told the New Mexican.
Morel said Vasquez and other elected officials regularly spread out content to maximize attention.
“Our office and several other offices frequently bank content, which is pretty common because if, for example, I sent you five press releases at a time, you probably wouldn’t cover all five,” he said. “You maybe would cover one, and you’d probably just be annoyed I’m bombing your inbox.”
Republicans, however, said the posts gave New Mexicans the wrong impression.
“Gabe Vasquez spent that week pretending to New Mexicans that he was home working for them,” Josiah Ward, a spokesperson for Republican Greg Cunningham, said in a statement.
“Now we know he was actually in Alaska on an all-expenses paid vacation funded by a Democratic mega-donor whose life work is shutting down oil and gas,” Ward added. “We know who Gabe really works for, and it’s not the people of New Mexico.”
The timing matters because oil and gas is a massive economic force in New Mexico, particularly in Vasquez’s southern New Mexico district. Republicans note that the industry contributes billions to the state budget and supports thousands of jobs in the region.
Since the Alaska trip, Vasquez has voted at least twice against expanding energy development efforts in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to the New Mexican.
Vasquez also posted photos from the Alaska trip on Instagram last month, writing, “As a sportsman, I know the unique value of our public lands and protecting this country’s most beautiful places.”
He added, “Today’s lease sale of the Arctic Refuge is yet another sell-off to special interests that will forever alter the last frontier, Indigenous people and their traditions, wildlife, and recreation opportunities.”
Morel called the Alaska trip “a standard one taken by a lot of members of Congress from both sides of the aisle” and noted that New Mexico Democratic Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández had also taken the trip.
But the posts continued while Vasquez was in Alaska. According to the New Mexican, photos of Vasquez at Cavern Theatre in Carlsbad were posted on Aug. 11, while the itinerary placed him in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Additional posts on Aug. 13 and Aug. 15 showed him meeting with an immigrant rights group and visiting a Carlsbad restaurant, even though he was still on the Alaska trip.
Morel rejected the idea that the posts implied Vasquez was physically present in those places at the time.
“I don’t think that in this day and age, in our digital world, that anybody posting something needs to give the impression that they are right there at that thing currently,” he said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee also blasted Vasquez over the report.
“Defund the police Gabe Vasquez has been caught lying to New Mexicans once again, pretending to work while galavanting around Alaska on an all-expenses-paid trip with his fellow anti-oil-and-gas extremists,” NRCC spokesman Reilly Richardson said. “Voters know Vasquez is in office to serve one person: himself.”
The controversy comes as Vasquez faces another competitive reelection battle in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. Republicans are working to flip the seat, and the Alaska trip gives them a new line of attack: Vasquez appearing to post district activity while traveling on a donor-connected trip tied to the same anti-drilling agenda he later supported with his votes.
For New Mexicans in an energy-producing district, the question is simple: was Vasquez working for them — or for the environmental donor class that paid for his Alaska adventure?
Busted.