It isn’t every day when students get to talk to politicians about the issues they care about. However, Rep. Steve Pearce-R came to New Mexico State University Monday to talk to answer students’ questions on the state’s issues and his strategies to fix these problems if he wins the election for New Mexico State governor later in 2018.

Pearce, a Hobbs native, began his service in public office in 1996 when he was elected into the New Mexico House of Representatives and is currently serving his 6^th term in the United States House of Representatives.

Pearce announced that he would be running for governor in July of 2017.

An NMSU alumnus, Pearce explained his concerns for the price of higher education.

“I don’t think we’re giving the value for your education that you’re signing on for,” Pearce said. “If we take a look at the efficiencies we can find in the system find out where we’re spending money in colleges we should be or don’t need to be and let’s bring the cost down a little bit so you can pay off your college bills once you graduate.”

Pearce was serving in the N.M. House of Representatives when the Legislative Lottery Scholarship was enacted in 1996.

“Lotteries take from the poor. So, we’re taxing the poor more in the supposition that you’re going to get rich if you just play the lottery,” Pearce said.

Pearce explained that he will support the Lottery Scholarship but would not “bend over backwards” to improve the scholarship.

When it comes to funding higher education, Pearce, a former businessman, says that earning private scholarships from businesses is a better way of funding students’ education.

Pearce mentioned that the state is currently investing in other states’ economies by funding higher education scholarships in the state New Mexico’s economy is currently in because of the lack of jobs available when students graduate.

Pearce wants to invest in the economy so that students who graduate from New Mexico institutions can get jobs in the state.

In order to create a better economy, Pearce plans on keeping the state’s valuable natural resources in New Mexico instead of shipping them to other states.

Pearce plans to build manufacturing facilities for the copper extracted from the mines in Silver City and oil in the southeastern part of the state as well as promoting the logging industry and start contracting more with the labs in Los Alamos and Sandia.

Pearce in the only Republican running for governor in New Mexico. Other candidates running for governor on the Democratic ticket are Jeff Apodaca, Joe Cervantes, Peter DeBenedittis and Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Election day will be November 6, 2018, and the elected governor’s term will start January 1, 2019 and end exactly 4 years later in 2023.