ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Melanie Ann Stansbury, a Democrat from Bernalillo, won the special election to fill a vacancy in New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation. Defeating five other candidates for this position, Stansbury maintained the Democrat control over New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District and kept the state’s House of Representatives delegation entirely female.
Stansbury is a self-proclaimed Chile Enthusiast and graduated Saint Mary’s College in 2002 with a degree in Human Ecology and Natural Science. She has served the District of Bernalillo in the New Mexico State House of Representatives since 2019.
The election
Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland originally won this seat in 2018 and was reelected in 2020, but resigned the position after being selected and later confirmed by the United States Senate to the role of secretary in the Biden Administration. On March 31 the Democratic Party nominated Stansbury to run for the seat. The Republican Party of New Mexico nominated their candidate, Mark Moores on March 27; four other candidates, a Libertarian and three Independents also made it on the ballot.
Stansbury won the election with an astounding 60.3 percent of the vote, garnering 79,625 votes. Moores (R) achieved 47,071 votes. Aubrey Dunn (I) received 3,535 votes. Christopher Manning (L) received 1,751 votes. Laura Olivas (I) received two votes. Robert Ornelas (I) received zero votes.
This was the seventh special election called since the beginning of the 117th Congress, when Stansbury is sworn in, the Democrats will expand their control of the House to 120 seats compared to the Republicans 111 seats. There are no Libertarian, Independent, or other parties currently in the House of Representatives. Once Stansbury is sworn in, there will be 5 vacancies in the House.
With this election, New Mexico will again have its full congressional delegation fighting for it in Washington D.C., sending three women: Melanie Stansbury (D, NM 1st Congressional District), Yvette Herrell (R, NM 2nd Congressional District), and Teresa Leger Fernandez (D, NM 3rd Congressional District) to the House of Representatives. New Mexico also has two senators representing it in congress, Senator Martin Heinrich (D) and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D).
Stansbury can be found on Twitter @Melanie4NM and is set to be sworn in on June 14.