Democrats fended off a Republican attempt to make New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District special election a sign of a red wave to come in 2022, with Melanie Stansbury projected to win the seat. The presumed victory comes after some help from national Democrats flying in to campaign for her and funneling donations her way.
Stansbury, a state representative since 2019, had more than 60% of the first-counted early votes, enough for Decision Desk HQ to project her as the winner less than an hour after polls closed on Tuesday. Republican state Sen. Mark Moores was trailing far behind. Libertarian Chris Manning and independent and former state land commissioner Aubrey Dunn each had single-digit support.
Stansbury will replace Deb Haaland, who vacated the House seat earlier this year after she was confirmed as interior secretary for President Joe Biden.
As the rest of the votes are counted, national Republicans hope that Moores, a former University of New Mexico football player who can trace his family lineage in the state to the 1600s, will close the margin enough to test whether his core campaign message is a potentially winning strategy for Republicans in 2022.
Moores spent the bulk of his campaign hammering Stansbury for expressing support for the BREATHE Act, a Black Lives Matter-crafted “reimagining of public safety” federal policy proposal. That follows Republicans’ surprise House gains in the 2020 elections, which some Democrats blamed on the far-left wing of the party giving fuel to “defund the police” and socialism attacks from Republicans.
DEMOCRATS NERVOUS AND GOP HOPEFUL THAT NEW MEXICO ELECTION IS 2022 BELLWETHER
To prevent a surprise Republican victory, Stansbury got help from national Democratic groups and politicians. The Democratic National Committee, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and others blasted their email lists with fundraising appeals for Stansbury. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Pete Aguilar of California traveled to New Mexico to campaign for her in the last week of the election.
Stansbury previously worked on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration Office of Management and Budget. She was born and raised in New Mexico before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in ecology from Saint Mary’s College of California and a master’s in sociology from Cornell University.
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New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District is a historical launching pad for politicians, with other previous representatives including Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, and former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, a Republican.
