The US onAir Network will be working with volunteers from New Mexico universities, colleges, and nonprofit organizations to oversee the curation and moderation of posts, aircasts (online discussions), and in person events for the New Mexico onAir Hub …  related to federal, state, and local elections and government.

Our first outreach will be to University of New Mexico partly because of its proximity to the state capital. We have identified many of University of New Mexico’s civic engagement, academic, internship and research programs related to making democracy and civic responsibility a focus of higher learning on their campus … for students, faculty, staff, and local community. This post, over time, will have similar information on other collaborating organizations in the state.

Contact ben.murphy@onair.cc for more information on how to involve your organization.

New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States; its capital is Santa Fe, which was founded in 1610 as capital of Nuevo México (itself established as a province of New Spain in 1598), while its largest city is Albuquerque with its accompanying metropolitan area. It is one of the Mountain States of the Southern Rocky Mountains, and shares the Four Corners region of the Western U.S. with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. New Mexico is also bordered by the state of Texas to the east-southeast, Oklahoma to the northeast, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua to the south and Sonora to the southwest.

With a population of 2,120,220 as of the 2020 U.S. Census, New Mexico is the 36th largest state by population. With a total area of 121,590 sq mi (314,900 km2), it is the fifth-largest and sixth-least densely populated of the 50 states. Due to their geographic locations, northern and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder alpine climate, while western and southern New Mexico exhibit a warmer arid climate; the Rio Grande and its fertile valley runs from north-to-south creating a riperian climate in the middle of the state, supplying central New Mexico with its bosque (gallery forest) and distinct Albuquerque Basin climate.