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Sen. Ben Ray Luján

Senator for New Mexico

pronounced ben // LOO-hon

Luján is the junior senator from New Mexico and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2021. Luján is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027. He is 52 years old.

He was previously the representative for New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district as a Democrat from 2009 to 2020.

Photo of Sen. Ben Ray Luján [D-NM]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Luján.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Luján is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills legislators have sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Nov 21, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Ben Ray Luján sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Luján was the primary sponsor of 17 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 17 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Luján sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (28%) Native Americans (16%) Science, Technology, Communications (16%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (12%) Agriculture and Food (10%) Commerce (7%) Energy (6%) Education (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Luján recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Luján voted Yea

Failed 230/162 on Dec 20, 2018.

Luján voted Yea

Passed 249/177 on Nov 17, 2015.

Luján voted Yea

Failed 263/146 on Nov 16, 2015.

Luján voted Yea

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.
The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of …

Luján voted Nay

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December …

Luján voted Aye

Luján voted Nay

Luján voted No

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.
The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2021 to Nov 2024, Luján missed 81 of 1,593 roll call votes, which is 5.1%. This is much worse than the median of 3.0% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: