{"id":41044,"date":"2022-04-21T22:44:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T04:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-lujan-90-recovered-from-stroke-visits-high-school\/"},"modified":"2022-04-22T04:44:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T04:44:17","slug":"sen-lujan-90-recovered-from-stroke-visits-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-lujan-90-recovered-from-stroke-visits-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Luj\u00e1n, \u201890%\u2019 recovered from stroke, visits high school"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sen.
Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., speaks to students who have suffered mental health issues during the pandemic at Santa Fe High School library on Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Santa Fe, N.M. Luj\u00e1n returned to Congress in March after suffering a stroke that kept him away from the Senate for weeks and temporarily halted Democrat\u2019s hold on power in the 50-50 split Senate. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n has mostly recovered from his January stroke, and said voters, not his health scare<\/a>, will decide who represents New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling strong. I\u2019m still not 100% but I think I\u2019m over 90%,\u201d said Luj\u00e1n, 49, on a Thursday tour of Santa Fe High School.<\/p>\n

He toured the campus in red Converse sneakers and, along with U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, talked with students in a closed meeting at the campus library and listened as they shared their struggles with mental health.<\/p>\n

New Mexico children lost caretakers at a higher rate during the pandemic than most other states, according to a December report from the Covid Collaborative. An estimated 1,600 children in the state lost a caregiver, and the rate was 10 times higher for Native American children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey suffered loss \u2013 family members, friends \u2013 and we need to make sure we re-imagine our schools to be schools that provide a social-emotional support,\u201d Cardona said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A scar from a recent surgery can bee seen on the head of Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., as he speaks with staff members at Santa Fe High School on Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Santa Fe. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cardona said it was his 32nd state visit as Education Secretary for the Biden administration. He urged the states to prioritize mental health support with the $1 billion in funding directed at schools in New Mexico from federal pandemic relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know our rural communities are often dealing with different challenges. And I want to make sure that the funds through the American Rescue Plan meet them where they are,\u201d Cardona said.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n\u2019s recovery from the stroke is a relief for Democrats who barely hold power in the evenly divided Senate, thanks only to the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. The White House agenda <\/a>was thrown into peril when Luj\u00e1n\u2019s stroke was first revealed.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n credited hospital staff members, prayer and a positive attitude for his quick recovery. After returning to Congress in March, he held his first public events in New Mexico this week, starting in Albuquerque on Tuesday. He said he\u2019s also been doing work at his family farm and walked to a church as part of an Easter pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimay\u00f3, a historic church in the northern part of the state.<\/p>\n

Sen. Luj\u00e1n doesn\u2019t face reelection until 2026. He said his health scare won\u2019t cause him to retire before his term is up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here as long as I have and earn the support of the people of New Mexico,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said. \u201cThey will decide who\u2019s going to serve them in the U.S. Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., speaks to students who have suffered mental health issues during the pandemic at Santa Fe High School library on Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Santa Fe, N.M. Luj\u00e1n returned to Congress in March after suffering a stroke that kept him away from the Senate for weeks and temporarily halted Democrat\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41044"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}