A special congressional election is set for June 1 in New Mexico to fill the vacancy in the district that includes the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories facilities in Albuquerque.
The open seat was created March 16 when then-Rep. Debra Haaland (D) resigned to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of interior after being confirmed in a 51-to-40 vote by the Senate.
The Republican Party of New Mexico has picked state Sen. Mark Moores to be its candidate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. Moores finished ahead of talk radio host Eddy Aragon in a vote by the party’s central committee. Several Democrats in the New Mexico Legislature are among prospective candidates for the seat.
Days after Haaland’s resignation, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver issued a proclamation setting the First Congressional district special election date and giving political parties and independent candidates until April 6 to file declarations of candidacy, according to a summary posted on the secretary of state website.
Voter registration ends May 4, which is 28 days before the election. The May 4 date also marks the point when some early in-person voting starts and county clerks can begin mailing ballots to eligible voters who have requested an absentee ballot. May 29 will be the last day of early voting, according to the special election data on the website. The state canvas board will certify the election June 22.
Haaland, who is now the first Native American cabinet secretary, was first elected to the congressional seat in November 2018 and then re-elected in November 2020. In mid-December, then-President-elect Biden announced plans to nominate the House member to head the Department of Interior.
