15 Facts About Jacob Candelaria

Jacob Rodney Candelaria was born on 1987 and is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the New Mexico Senate for the 26th district from 2013 to 2022.

On December 6,2021, Candelaria announced that he was changing his party affiliation from "Democrat" to "Decline to State".

Jacob Candelaria was the first openly gay man elected to the New Mexico Legislature.

Jacob Candelaria was born in Albuquerque, and brought up by his grandmother Elodia Gloria Jacob Candelaria.

At Princeton, Jacob Candelaria was a member of The Ivy Club and St Anthony Hall.

Jacob Candelaria returned to Albuquerque after graduating from Princeton, working for Think New Mexico, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee and Ben Lujan, the speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Jacob Candelaria is the owner and managing partner of his own law firm, Jacob Candelaria Law LLC.

On March 5,2012, Jacob Candelaria announced his candidacy for the New Mexico Senate, seeking the Democratic nomination in the 26th district.

Jacob Candelaria was initially one of four Democrats to have filed for the seat, including incumbent Sen.

In 2017, Jacob Candelaria sponsored legislation to ban Gay conversion therapy in New Mexico.

Jacob Candelaria was the lead sponsor and chief legislative architect of the 2019 New Mexico Energy Transition Act.

On October 24,2020, Jacob Candelaria denounced an anti-lockdown protest held at the New Mexico Capitol Building in a television appearance.

Jacob Candelaria is the first gay man to serve in the New Mexico Legislature and only the second LGBT person, after state Senator Liz Stefanics.

Jacob Candelaria married his husband, a resident physician at the University of New Mexico Hospital specializing in infectious diseases, in May 2019 at a ceremony in Santa Fe officiated by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Jacob Candelaria's husband is a member of the Tillery family of New Mexico car dealers.