Thanks to an easy victory in Tuesday’s special election, the Democratic Party maintains control of Mexico’s 1st Congressional District seat vacated in March when Deb Haaland resigned to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of interior.
Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, won 60% of the vote to defeat Republican state Sen. Mark Moores with 36%, according to unofficial results posted on the New Mexico secretary of state website.
With all 642 precincts reporting, the results show Independent Aubrey Dunn won 3% of the vote and Libertarian Christopher Manning 1%. There were also two write-in candidates who failed to crack the 1% mark.
Located in central New Mexico, the 1st district includes most of Albuquerque and the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories facilities. Democrats have held the seat since 2009. In the U.S. House of Representatives the Democrats held a 219-211 edge over Republicans going into Tuesday’s special election, according to a House website.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, preceded Haaland in the congressional seat before taking the governor’s mansion in the November 2018 election.
