Candy Spence Ezzell was born in Artesia on Thanksgiving Day, to Solon and Jackie Spence. She grew up on the family farm north of Artesia and west of Lake Arthur and learned early how to work: feeding cows, driving tractors, sweeping up, picking cotton, etc. Half of the money earned went in to the collection plate on Sundays. For Candy, fun was always riding horses.

Candy attended Cottonwood Elementary School, Park Junior High, graduated from Artesia High School. She attended NMSU and ENMU-Roswell.

Since 1974, Candy has been a full-time farmer and rancher. Since 1993 she and her husband have owned and operated a twenty-seven section cattle ranch southwest of Roswell.

Candy was elected to the NM House of Representatives in 2004, where she served from 2005 until 2024, serving as Caucus Chair for 4 years.

She is proud to be a member of the NM Cattle Growers Association, life-time member of the NRA (with an A+ rating!), lifetime member of the North American Limousin Foundation, and a life-time member of the AQHA.

Candy is married to Calder Ezzell, and they have two grown children, Robert and Kathleen—along with 50+ bonus kids who also call Candy “Mom.”

Civic service:

• 4-H member for 9 years
• Eddy County 4-H Council Secretary
• 4-H leader for 10 years
• Eddy County Leader of the Year 1986
• New Mexico 4-H Rodeo Executive Committee for 8 years
• Cottonwood Volunteer Fire Department 1974-1993
• Coached Little League baseball for 6 years
• Taught and coached gymnastics for 8 years
• Served on the Eastern NM State Fair Junior Livestock Sale committee for 10 years
• Superintendent for the ENMSF Arts & Crafts Department for 6 years

Legislative activities and awards:

– Former Member: House Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources Committee, the Labor Committee, Business & Industry Committee, Consumer & Public Affairs Committee, Legislative Finance Committee

– Current Member: Education Committee

– Ranking Member and Former Chair: House Agriculture, Acequias and Water Committee

• 20-year member of the NM Sportsmen’s Caucus
• Executive Board of the National Sportsmen’s Caucus for 8 years.
• Farm Bureau Distinguished Service Award, 2012
• NM Business Coalition Award, 2012
• NM FFA Honorary State Degree in 2013
• Association of Commerce & Industry Award, 2018
• ENMU-R Supporter of the Year for Basic Adult Education, 2019
• Rio Grande Foundation Freedom Index Award, 2024

Agriculture

“To protect and care for all his creation, God created farmers and ranchers.”

That saying is on a sign on the gate to my ranch. I’ve been involved in agriculture my whole life. I own our cattle ranch with my husband and I still own family farms with my brothers. Our family farms raise alfalfa, cotton, chili, sorghum, and other crops.

Everybody is involved in agriculture because they eat. But less than 2.5% of the US population feeds the rest of the world. My dad was a farmer, his dad was a farmer. Before we came to this country, my family back in Ireland raised horses. Agriculture and livestock is in my blood, and it’s who I am.

I have a lifetime’s worth of experience, knowledge, and wisdom on the issues facing farmers and ranchers in New Mexico. No matter what happens in the legislature, I am ready to fight for our rights and our needs.

After some tough years, New Mexico’s agriculture industry is on the rise, but still faces many challenges, especially overburdensome regulations. Agriculture is a key economic driver in our state. As your state senator, my top priority will be protecting agricultural interests and doing everything I can to make sure it thrives.

Protecting Water Rights

I have served on a number of committees concerning water and water rights, including the House Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources. I have been involved in agriculture my whole life.

I want to protect our water in New Mexico and especially in the Southeast corner. My focus is on two things:

• Ensuring that we are in compliance with the State of Texas and paying them in water, not in cash.
• Making sure that the water rights from our basin are not bought up by developers and pumped to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We must balance the private property rights of folks who hold their own water rights with the need to keep our water here where it is so needed. Developers and speculators want to use our water for economic development in the North, but the fact is that we need it just as badly if not more so for economic development right here. I won’t allow our water rights to be transferred out of basin.

Early in my legislative career I passed a bill where the interstate stream commission could buy land in our area, but that they could not come in and subdivide the land unless they bought new, additional water rights. My bill allowed the interstate stream commission to make sure New Mexico was in compliance with the supreme court’s ruling for the state—but they can’t subdivide unless they retain a percentage of the water rights.

Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas not only powers every aspect of the economy in New Mexico, but also generates the revenue that funds our state schools. I strongly oppose the far-left environmentalist agenda which aims not only at the destruction of the oil and gas industry but at obliterating the economic well-being of every individual and family in this state. I will continue to fight to repeal the New Mexico Green New Deal and other bills that undermine the future of our state.

Education

I am a strong proponent of local control in education. I believe in local solutions for local problems, because the needs of our community are not the same as the needs of places like Albuquerque and Santa Fe. For this reason I support local school districts who have had success using a four day school week, and other alternative approaches to education.

Smaller schools in rural areas need to be able to do a 4 day school week. For much of modern history in New Mexico, like in other agricultural states, school calendars responded to the needs of families and communities. And I think we can all see from the data that education was better when it wasn’t one-size-fits all. And we see that today too! The schools that work on a 4-day school week are some of the best-performing schools in New Mexico, outperforming the industrial education machine in Albuquerque.

But now, Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration is trying to dictatorially force our local schools to abide by the factory settings up North. This is going to impact Dexter, Lake Arthur, Tatum, all the smaller towns in Senate District 32.

So many teachers in rural parts of our district come in from far off for a few days of the week to teach, and then go back home. They can’t go back to a five day school week. The cost of utilities and maintenance and buses at these schools for a full week is a big deal down here. In short, this centrally-planned catastrophe from Santa Fe will drastically effect our communities. I will fight it every step of the way.

Immigration

Our open border with Mexico is especially affecting our area of the state. It’s an open door for drugs, crime, and massive depletion of our limited resources. It’s effecting the ability of citizens and also legal visa holders to find work and provide for their kids.

The drug problem is overwhelming. We have to put our citizens first. This could, of course, all be solved if we had state and federal governments willing to simply enforce the law. We currently do not. However, I believe there is more that can be done to pressure the ruling elite in Santa Fe to take action, especially with a rise in public awareness about this issue. If elected to the state Senate, I will be in a better position to apply pressure on this issue with legislation tailored to force New Mexico to actually enforce state and federal immigration law.

Second Amendment

I’m a lifetime member of the NRA. In my time in the legislature, I have received an A+ rating from the NRA every year I’ve been in office. I am unshakeably pro-2nd Amendment and will not bow to the progressives trying to destroy our Constitution.