This is a press release from the Campaign of Thomas Durham for Congress.
Thomas A Durham II, a student at WNMU, recently announced his campaign for the seat originally held by Steve Pearce this last week. He will be campaigning in the area soon, looking for signatures for his run for the second Congressional District of New Mexico. He will be graduating on Friday, December 7 and will immediately begin campaigning.
Thomas Allen Durham II was born in Baton Rouge, LA but grew up in San Antonio, TX. He lived for a year with his grandparents in Louisiana and competed in the state swimming competition in 1997 He attended Health Careers High School with his twin brother and graduated in 1999. He was the president of the Health Occupations Students of America chapter, was the treasurer of the Explorers club and was poet laureate of his high school class. He was the youngest person to place in the San Antonio Poetry Slam and appeared on PBS.
After high school, he attended Texas A&M Corpus Christi for several semesters before returning to San Antonio. He worked for San Antonio Water Systems the city’s water utility, in the water conservation department. After 9/11, Thomas joined the Air Force and was the distinguished graduate of his Tech School class. After serving for two years Thomas moved back to San Antonio and worked for USAA.
At the end of 2012 Thomas moved to Silver City, NM to live closer to his father and stepmother. In 2013 he went to New York to work on the Hurricane Sandy Recovery project. Upon completion of the project he went to work for an environmental company in Baton Rouge. He then returned to Silver City and enrolled at WNMU, and began to get engaged in the community. Thomas wanted to be involved and started working with the local sexual assault non-profit as a victim’s advocate. He then started getting involved in local politics as well and after identifying a need he started the Young Democrats of Grant County. The next year Thomas joined student government as the Chief Justice and joined the board of El Refugio the local domestic violence shelter. In 2017 Thomas interned for a State Senator while working as an attendant for the New Mexico legislature and made the transition in Student Government to Attorney General.
In addition to serving as the President of the Young Democrats of Grant County on campus, Thomas is also the Vice President of Sigma Tau Delta and the Vice President of the Table Top Gaming Society. Outside of the university, Thomas has been elected to the New Mexico State Central Committee for the Democratic Party, was appointed to the Grant Country Democratic Party Executive Council and is the Vice President of the SWNM Chapter of the ACLU. He also serves as the CD2 Chair of the Veteran’s Caucus.
