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Democrat Stansbury Celebrates Special Election Win

Stansbury campaign
Melanie Stansbury celebrates an election win at Hotel Albuquerque Tuesday night.

Tuesday night Albuquerque Democrat Melanie Stansbury celebrated her victory with a crowd chanting her name after winning the congressional seat left open when Deb Haaland was asked to serve as President’s Biden’s Interior Secretary.

Stansbury touted her Albuquerque roots and a working-class upbringing through the campaign and during a victory speech at Hotel Albuquerque.

She talked about her family working heavy equipment and working in education. She, too, has a history in education as a former ecology teacher for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. 

Stansbury later spent years in Washington D.C. as an aid to Senator Maria Cantwell from Washington state, and as a staffer with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources before returning home to win two consecutive terms in the New Mexico House of Representatives

These experiences helped shape her policy goals. To the election night watch party crowd she said, “We must restore our country’s faith in science, democracy, and good government.”

On a message on her campaign website, Stansbury said that since the COVID-19 pandemic began she’s focused onhelping to provide basic needs to her community like food and water, unemployment and small business benefits, and raising money for relief. 

Near the end of her speech in the Hotel Albuquerque ballroom, she said she would take the rest of the night off with a shout to her supporters, "Let's celebraaaaaaate!"

Kaveh Mowahed is a reporter with KUNM who follows government, public health and housing. Send story ideas to kaveh@kunm.org.
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