11-06-2024 12:10am

Rep Gabe Vasquez Wins NMCD 2 NM Maintains All Democratic Federal Representation

Chris Edwards Editor

In what was a hard fight and a heavily contested race for the New Mexico congressional district 2 race between Republican Yvette Herrell and incumbent Democrat Gabe Vasquez a winner has been defined. Gabe Vasquez is the projected winner with a lead of almost 8,000 votes with approximately 5,000 uncounted votes as of 11:45 pm Tuesday evening.

Alamogordo's hometown girl, Yvette Herrell garnered 62.4% of the local Otero County vote but overall only secured 48.4% of the total vote. Rep. Gabe Vasquez won a historic second term on Tuesday in the highly contested battleground of New Mexico’s 2nd District, preserving a Democratic seat that was among the top pickup opportunities for the Republicans this year.

Vasquez defeated GOP challenger Yvette Herrell in a rematch of their 2022 race, when Herrell was the incumbent. It marks the fourth straight cycle that Herrell has been on the ballot for the seat and the third time she’s lost it.

Vasquez vastly outraised Herrell in the fundraising fight. And Democrats had a potent issue of their own to highlight in the form of abortion, which has energized the party’s liberal base — and female voters of all stripes — since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

A new congressional map, adopted in 2021, also extended the 2nd District into parts of the city of Albuquerque, in a shift that’s helped the Democrats.

Still, Vasquez won by just 1,350 votes in 2022 and a much larger margin this time around. The contested election forecasters ranked the race among the most competitive in the country.

Donors noticed, and outside groups alone dumped almost $19 million into the district — $9.8 million of it spent on behalf of Herrell, according to OpenSecrets.

The Cook Political Report had called the District 2 race a toss up, making it an important election nationwide as Republicans entered Tuesday hoping to maintain their slim majority in the U.S. House.

Both candidates received national party support, with Vasquez drawing backing from House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries while Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have campaigned as Herrell is attempting to reclaim the seat for the Republicans.

This win by Vasquez is historic as its the first back to back win by a Democrat in the district in over 3 decades.

Incumbent Vasquez is a former Las Cruces city councilor who invoked his knowledge of the border region and its economy as the U.S.-born son of immigrants from Mexico. His campaign has proposed safeguards against cartels that smuggle drugs or migrants, a humanitarian approach to asylum-seekers and support for abortion rights.

Herrell, a real estate agent and former state legislator, campaigned in favor of hard-line immigration enforcement policies. She has denounced oversight of the border under President Biden while advocating for a return to efforts by former President Donald Trump to expand the border wall and to enforce requirements that asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

The district still includes portions of the oil-rich Permian Basin, and Herrell had cast herself as a staunch advocate for the energy industry in the No. 2 state for petroleum production after Texas. Vasquez unsuccessfully proposed creation of a compensation fund for uninsured medical costs related to air pollution and heat-related illness, in a bill geared toward oilfield workers. A majority of her large were from the oil industry with significant contributions from Texas.

On abortion access, Herrell downplayed Congress’ role and says she’ll defer to state law after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. She previously supported legislation in Congress to restrict abortion access.

New Mexico abortion laws are among the most liberal in the nation. Vasquez supports initiatives in Congress to uphold abortion rights.

During her term in Congress, Herrell joined Republicans on Jan. 6, 2021, in rejecting the certification of Biden’s election victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania. She also voted against a bipartisan 2021 law that invested billions in America’s infrastructure.

The district’s voting age population is roughly 56% Latino — with centuries-old ties to Mexican and Spanish settlement — and 5% Native American, traversing the Mescalero Apache Reservation, four pueblo communities, outlying portions of the Navajo Nation and land holdings of the Oklahoma-based Fort Sill Apache Tribe.

The other New Mexico Congressional Seats also saw Democratic victories.

Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing New Mexico on Wednesday. Bolstered by the support of labor unions, Stansbury’s victory further solidifies control over an Albuquerque-based seat that has been held by Democrats since 2009. A former state lawmaker, Stansbury has advocated for reproductive rights and Democratic initiatives aimed at combating climate change. She has also sought more federal funding for infrastructure projects, particularly those that would help address water supply concerns in the arid West. Stansbury defeated Republican Steve Jones of Ruidoso.

Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing New Mexico on Wednesday. Leger Fernández has spent much of her tenure pressuring the Biden administration and federal land managers to follow through with wildfire recovery in communities devastated by a pair of botched prescribed burns that resulted in the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. She also has advocated for fully funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund. Leger Fernández defeated Republican former state lawmaker Sharon Clahchischilliage, who is Navajo, for the 3rd District seat representing northern New Mexico.