Michelle Sandoval, an employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is again vying to represent New Mexico’s 57th district in the statehouse.
Sandoval, who unsuccessfully ran for the State House seat in 2022, announced another bid for the office as a Democrat on her Facebook page and in the Rio Rancho Observer.
Three years ago, she narrowly lost out to incumbent Jason Harper, a Republican, with 48.2% of the vote to Harper’s 51.8%, a difference of just 428 votes. New Mexico’s 57th district is southern in Sandoval County, a large area that abuts the much smaller Los Alamos County to the northeast.
Sandoval lives in Rio Rancho, a suburb of Albuquerque, N.M., that sits about an hour and a half south, by car, from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“I have intentions to focus on crucial issues that deeply resonate with me: public safety, education, environment, and economy,” Sandoval said on her campaign website.
Sandoval has a background in bank administration and public service, having worked for Bank of the West and in the Sandoval County Treasurer’s Office. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2018 with a degree in business administration and earned a master’s in business administration from the same institution in 2021, according to her campaign site.
She currently “brings her wealth of experience to The Los Alamos Labs, where her expertise continues to enrich the institution’s endeavors,” according to her website. She does not specify what position she holds at the lab, nor is it listed on her LinkedIn profile.
Harper is also an NNSA labs veteran, with 18 years working at Sandia National Laboratories where, among other things, he invented an anthrax detector, according to his campaign website. He is also on the advisory board for the Chemical Engineering Department at New Mexico Tech.
Harper is the ranking member on the state House’s Taxation and Revenue Committee and has standing appointments to three others, including the Transportation, Public Works and Capital Improvement Committee.