Democrat Melanie Stansbury won the House of Representatives elections for New Mexico on Tuesday with a campaign closely tied to the initiatives of the Biden administration.
Stanbury prevailed in a four-way open race to fill a vacant position previously held by Home Secretary Deb Haaland. The 42-year-old state legislator outscored her Republican rival by more than 30,000 votes, getting about six out of 10 votes as the ballots were counted into the evening.
Stansbury tied her bid for Congress to propose and enact Democratic legislation on pandemic relief, infrastructure spending and interventions to curb climate change. Her victory underpins the Democratic majority in Congress ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
She took the stage in Albuquerque with both arms raised, in celebration of her victory. Thanking supporters and volunteers, she said the courage and determination that fueled her campaign was learned from her own mother, who worked in a denim factory and later as a tow truck operator.
“When the moment demands it, when our families and our communities demand it, when our country demands it, we step forward and find the solutions for the communities and solve it,” Stanbury said. “And that’s exactly what we did this season and that’s why I’m in front of you tonight.”
Stanbury’s victory preserves an all-female House delegation for the state. She defeated Republican State Senator Mark Moores to fill an Albuquerque-based seat that Democrats have held since 2009.
The executive order includes expanding voter registration and giving employers time off to vote.
Libertarian candidate Chris Manning and independent Aubrey Dunn Jr. campaigned unsuccessfully to represent the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Albuquerque, rural Torrance County, and other outlying areas that include the Sandia Pueblo Indian community.
Stanbury reiterated her pressure for a $ 15 minimum wage, economic and racial equality, and police reforms. She said there is a lot of work to be done and she wants to give everyone a seat at the table while rebuilding the country and its infrastructure.
Amid the Election Day vote, she emphasized the need for a major round of federal spending on infrastructure.
The bill contemplates granting citizenship to 11 million undocumented people, among other key aspects.
“This is especially important for New Mexico because it includes funding for things like broadband and clean energy,” Stansbury said.
Voters in the district have largely favored Democratic candidates in recent years, avoiding former President Donald Trump with a gap of 23 percentage points in 2020 and re-electing Haaland by a margin of 16 percentage points, as the turnout of the voters reached an all-time high.
Tuesday’s election is one of the few races to fill congressional vacancies before the 2022 midterm elections. Democrats held a 219-211 majority in Congress before Tuesday’s vote in New Mexico.
The electoral reform bill only needed approval in the House of Representatives to be signed by Governor Greg Abbott.
Moores tried unsuccessfully to flip the seat of Republican control by highlighting concerns about crime in Albuquerque and painting his Democratic opponent as a radical progressive.
Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said from New Mexico that enthusiasm is building among Democrats and that Stansbury’s victory helps ensure that work in Washington can continue on the Democratic agenda.
The New Mexico First District seat has consistently been a stepping stone to higher office for Republican and Democratic politicians, including the now-deceased Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan Jr., former Secretary of the US Air Force Heather Wilson, Senator from the US Martin Heinrich and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Experts say whether the $ 3,000 aid per child, if approved, would be enough.
The district relies heavily on federal research and military funding as the headquarters for Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories.
Trump in 2020 backfired on Albuquerque-area voters after he sent federal agents to bolster local law enforcement efforts.
Last year, Republicans turned the state’s second-expanding congressional district into southern New Mexico when Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo ousted current United States Representative Xochitl Torres Small.