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Some NM voters to cast primary ballots for new districts

Detail of New Mexico's 2021 U.S. congressional district map.
Research and Polling inc.
/
Legislative Council Services
Detail of New Mexico's 2021 U.S. congressional district map.

With the 2022 New Mexico primary approaching on June 7, early voting is underway. It's the first election since state lawmakers redrew voting districts for the U.S. House, state Legislature and Public Education Commission last year.

All three U.S. congressional districts are now Democratic-leaning, though the northern 3rd District, represented by Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, is now more competitive.

A significant portion of the westside of the Albuquerque Metro Area will be voting in a new congressional district, as will eastern New Mexico residents.

Most Albuquerque voters south of Interstate 40 and west of Interstate 25, excluding Downtown, have moved from Democrat Melanie Stansbury’s 1st District to Republican Yvette Herrell’s 2nd. Democrats in this area will be choosing between Darshan Patel and Gabe Vasquez to run against Herrell in the newly Democratic-leaning district.

Further north, much of Rio Rancho is now represented by Stansbury,rather than Leger Fernandez. Republicans in the largely conservative city will nominate either Michelle Garcia Holmes or Louie Sanchez as their candidate for the 1st Congressional District.

Eastern New Mexico Republicans in Guadalupe, De Baca, Lincoln, and even parts of Chaves and Otero counties will also be weighing Holmes and Sanchez.

Further southeast, voters in the rest of Chavez County, including those in Roswell, along with Roosevelt and northern Lea counties will cast a ballot in CD 3 for the first time, where Republican Alexis Martinez Johnson is running unopposed to represent the party in November.

Districts for the state legislature have also shifted, with both chambers adding Democratic-leaning districts. The House map has seven more districts that are either solidly Democratic or lean to the left compared to the former2011 map. The Senate map has four additional blue districts compared to the map used for the last decade, according toLegislative Council Services performance data.


Check which districts you are in and review a sample primary ballot on the Secretary of State's voter information portal. You must request an absentee ballot by Thursday, June 2. Election regulators suggest dropping it off at a polling location or ballot drop box if you haven’t mailed it by June 3 to ensure it arrives by 7 p.m. on Election Day, June 7.

The Your New Mexico Government project is a collaboration between KUNM and New Mexico PBS with support from the Thornburg Foundation.

Nash Jones (they/them) is a general assignment reporter in the KUNM newsroom and the local host of NPR's All Things Considered (weekdays on KUNM, 5-7 p.m. MT). You can reach them at nashjones@kunm.org or on Twitter @nashjonesradio.
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