In 2022, the United States saw competitive contests across the country in the House of Representatives. Republicans won a narrow popular vote victory by Republicans, enabling them to take control of the House. One state that saw a competitive contest was New Mexico, in the form of the newly redrawn second congressional district. During redistricting in New Mexico, the process resulted in a Democratic gerrymander, rendering all the districts Biden-won seats.
In the 2022 New Mexico House of Representatives election, Democrats won all three districts and carried the state by a margin of 70,313 votes (9.97%). This article will look at the two districts that were decided under 15.00%.
Overall Table Results and Congressional Map
| District | Republican | Democratic | Total | RPCT | DPCT |
| 1 | 124,151 | 156,462 | 280,671 | 44.23% | 55.75% |
| 2 | 96,636 | 96,986 | 193,673 | 49.90% | 50.08% |
| 3 | 96,565 | 134,217 | 230,782 | 41.84% | 58.16% |
| Total | 317,352 | 387,665 | 705,126 | 45.01% | 54.98% |
| Margin | D +70,313 | D +9.97% |
Party Registration Data (As of November Election)
| District | Republican | RPCT | Democratic | DPCT | Other | Total |
| 1 | 161,205 | 32.2% | 215,074 | 42.9% | 125,056 | 501,335 |
| 2 | 129,296 | 31.0% | 178,414 | 42.8% | 108,841 | 416,551 |
New Mexico Congressional District 1
The 1st Congressional District of New Mexico is a strongly Democratic district, with a Democratic voter registration advantage (in November 2022) of 53,869 voters (10.7%) as of the November election. The district is centered geographically in central New Mexico, but two-thirds of the population resides in Bernalillo County. Joe Biden carried the district by over 14 percentage points in the 2020 election.
In the primary, incumbent Democrat Melanie Stansbury, ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side, Michelle Garcia Holmes, who was a candidate in the 2020 general election and 2021 special election, ran against Republican candidate Louie Sanchez. Holmes won the Republican nomination with 25,822 votes (58.7%), while Sanchez took 18,171 votes (41.3%). Both Stansbury and Holmes advanced to the general election in November.
Result
| County | Holmes | Holmes % | Stansbury | Stansbury % |
| Bernalillo | 75,916 | 39.27% | 117,358 | 60.71% |
| Chaves | 1,472 | 85.38% | 252 | 14.62% |
| De Baca | 512 | 70.82% | 211 | 29.18% |
| Guadalupe | 740 | 44.13% | 937 | 55.87% |
| Lincoln | 5,762 | 69.86% | 2,486 | 30.14% |
| Otero | 54 | 34.18% | 104 | 65.82% |
| Sandoval | 26,620 | 49.24% | 27,428 | 50.74% |
| Santa Fe | 3,054 | 66.52% | 1,537 | 33.48% |
| Torrance | 3,675 | 67.18% | 1,795 | 32.82% |
| Valencia | 6,346 | 59.31% | 4,354 | 40.69% |
| Total | 124,151 | 44.23% | 156,462 | 55.75% |
| Margin | D +32,311 | D +11.52% |
In the general election, Stansbury won Bernalillo and Sandoval, the two largest counties in the district, by a combined margin of 42,250 votes from those two counties. Holmes won the smaller counties by a margin of only 9,939 votes – not nearly enough to overcome the urban deficit. Overall, Stansbury won re-election by a margin of 32,311 votes, or 11.5%.
New Mexico Congressional District 2
New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional district was a Republican-leaning district until it was redrawn to include a large chunk of Albuquerque, making it a Democratic-leaning district. The district had a solid Democratic voter registration edge of 49,118 voters (or 11.8%) as of the November elections, and would have voted for Biden by a margin of just under six percentage points. A redistricting challenge filed by the New Mexico Republican Party is underway as of the time of this writing.
In the primary election for the 2nd Congressional District of New Mexico, incumbent Republican Yvette Herrell was unopposed unopposed. On the Democratic side, Gabe Vasquez, a former aide to New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, earned 24,010 votes (76.1%), while Darshan Patel, a physician, placed second with 7,534 votes (23.9%). Both Herrell and Vasquez advanced to the general election.
-2nd District Election Data (In November Election/Note: Some Write-In votes are not reported on the Secretary of State’s website but are included in the total votes)
| County | Herrell | Herrell % | Vasquez | Vasquez % |
| Bernalillo | 19,986 | 40.74% | 29,058 | 59.24% |
| Catron | 1,497 | 75.23% | 493 | 24.77% |
| Cibola | 3,200 | 47.66% | 3,514 | 52.34% |
| Chaves | 76 | 100.00% | 0 | 0.00% |
| Dona Ana | 24,943 | 43.60% | 32,248 | 56.37% |
| Eddy | 8,652 | 74.12% | 3,021 | 25.88% |
| Grant | 5,281 | 45.61% | 6,290 | 54.33% |
| Hidalgo | 931 | 59.07% | 645 | 40.93% |
| Lea | 2,251 | 78.62% | 612 | 21.38% |
| Luna | 3,236 | 55.80% | 2,563 | 44.20% |
| McKinley | 409 | 26.78% | 1,118 | 73.22% |
| Otero | 11,312 | 65.51% | 5,950 | 34.46% |
| Sierra | 2,970 | 61.10% | 1,891 | 38.90% |
| Socorro | 2,905 | 48.44% | 3,092 | 51.56% |
| Valencia | 7,987 | 55.17% | 6,490 | 44.83% |
| Total | 95,636 | 49.64% | 96,985 | 50.34% |
| Margin | D +1,349 | D +0.70% |
In the general election, Vasquez won a close race over Republican incumbent Herrell, defeating her by a margin of 1,349 votes (0.7%). Vasquez was able to win by building up a large margin in Bernalillo and Dona Ana Counties, which he won by a combined margin of 16,377 votes. In the rest of the district, Herrell built up a 15,028 vote advantage – not enough to overcome Vasquez’s lead.