Democrats Win New Mexico Special Election

In March 2021, Deb Haaland was confirmed as the new Secretary of the Interior. This was an historic appointment by the Biden administration: Haaland is the first-ever Native American to head up a federal department. Before that, she served as one of New Mexico’s representatives to Congress. Haaland’s appointment meant that her old seat now stood vacant. Here, Election Central takes a closer look at this important election.

Who Were the Candidates?

Democrat Melanie Stansbury faced off against Republican Mark Moores. Both are New Mexico state representatives. The district, which includes Albuquerque, has leaned Democratic since 2009. Biden won the district by 23 percentage points last November and Stansbury always polled ahead of Moores during the campaign. So it wasn’t a surprise when Stansbury won easily, by more than 30,000 votes, or 25 percentage points.

What Were the Issues?

Stansbury tied her platform closely to the Biden administration’s, prioritizing pandemic relief, new funding for infrastructure projects, and addressing climate change, as well as raising the minimum wage and pushing for police reform. She also focused on protecting New Mexico’s natural resources. Moores, on the other hand, favored removing environmental protections to promote oil and gas drilling. Moores also accused Stansbury and other Democrats of being unsupportive of law enforcement.

Why Was This an Important Race?

This was the first time that a Democrat and a Republican went head-to-head in a congressional election since Biden’s presidency began in November. Republicans were hoping for an upset. Democrats currently hold control of the House of Representatives, but only by a narrow eight seat margin (219 to 211). Republicans saw this race as an opportunity to make that margin even smaller on their way to taking back control of Congress in 2022.

What Do You Think? The New Mexico special election included two other candidates: Independent Aubrey Dunn, and Libertarian Chris Manning. Use Internet resources to figure out what percentage of the vote they received. Do you think these two candidates helped or hurt Stansbury’s performance? Explain.