Democratic Party successfully holds Deb Haaland’s New Mexico seat with Melanie Stansbury

New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District will continue to be in Democratic hands for the rest of the 117th Congress, thanks to Melanie Stansbury’s comfortable victory in a special election held today to pick a successor to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who resigned to join President Biden’s Cabinet.

“Thank you New Mexico!” Stansbury tweeted after early results showed her well ahead of her Republican opponent. (As of press time, Stansbury had 79,208 votes, 60% of the total cast, while Mark David Moores had 46,977 votes, 36% of the total cast.)

“Melanie Stansbury’s resounding victory tonight is a testament to her strong ties to her community and Democrats’ momentum to continue taking bold actions For The People,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement. “A proud daughter of New Mexico, the Congresswoman-elect ran a disciplined campaign focused on improving the health care, education, and economic well-being of families across the state. House Democrats congratulate Melanie on her election and look forward to welcoming her expertise vital to building back better.”

Endorsed by Haaland, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Senator Martin Heinrich, and pretty much every other prominent Democratic leader in New Mexico, Stansbury had been favored to win.

But the ease of her victory was significant.

“Democrat Melanie Stansbury just had a landslide victory in the NM-01 special election —outperforming her predecessor Deb Haaland with a 62.6% to 33.5% win,” the Meidas Touch team triumphantly noted. “The suburbs are running away from Republicans — and fast. Turns out voters aren’t into fear mongering and coup attempts.” 

Stansbury’s arrival in the House of Representatives will soon give Speaker Nancy Pelosi one more vote to work with, bringing the House Democratic majority back up to two hundred and twenty, which will make moving legislation through the House easier. The House recently approved funding to improve the security of the Capitol by the slimmest of margins: one vote.

The current most junior member of the House Democratic caucus is U.S. Representative Troy Carter (D-Louisiana) who succeeded Cedric Richmond on May 11th, 2021.

Special elections have yet to be held to choose successors to the late Alcee Hastings (formerly D-Florida) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio). Those will take place later this year.