Democrat Melanie Stansbury wins House race in New Mexico

Democratic state Rep. Melanie Stansbury won a special election Tuesday, filling a seat left vacant by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Tying her campaign closely to President Joe Biden’s agenda, Stansbury beat her Republican opponent, state Sen. Mark Moores, by more than 30,000 votes. The 1st Congressional District, which includes Albuquerque, leans heavily Democrat: Haaland had won with a margin of 16 percentage points.

What is the significance of Stansbury’s win? With Democrats holding a 219-211 majority in Congress, Stansbury’s win helped shore up Democratic control in Congress ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Stansbury supports Democratic legislation on pandemic relief, infrastructure spending, and climate change. In 2019, she voted to decriminalize abortion in New Mexico, and in 2021 she voted to legalize the use of recreational marijuana.

Dig deeper: Read Jamie Dean’s report in WORLD about Democrats’ control of the presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.