Voters in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District were set to decide today whether Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, Republican Mark Moores or one of four other candidates will succeed former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) who was sworn in as secretary of interior on March 16.
Both major party candidates are already members of the New Mexico legislature. Stansbury is a member of the New Mexico state House of Representatives and Moores is a member of the state Senate. Both were selected by their parties’ special conventions in March, according to the Ballotpedia website.
Retaining the congressional district, home to the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories facilities in New Mexico, is important to the Democrats hopes of retaining their slender margin in the U.S. House of Representatives. As of May 12, Stansbury had raised more than $1.3 million or more than double the $595,000 raised by her Republican rival, Moores, according to a Thursday article posted by OpenSecrets.Org, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Also, on the ballot are Independent Aubrey Dunn as well as Libertarian candidate Christopher Manning. There are also two write-in candidates, according to Ballotpedia. Dunn, a former member of the GOP and Libertarian Party, served as New Mexico’s Public Lands Commissioner for four years during a term that ended Jan. 1, 2019, according to Ballotpedia. Manning spent six years in the U.S. Army National Guard, including a two-year deployment to Afghanistan where he served as a scout and sniper, according to his campaign website.
The last Republican to carry New Mexico’s first district was Rep. Heather Wilson, who gave up the seat in 2008 to make an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate and who later served two years as undersecretary of the Air Force for then-President Donald Trump. Now-President Joe Biden carried the district handily during the November 2020 election, according to Ballotpedia.
