ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Democrats retained political control of the state with the reelection of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and Congressman Gabe Vasquez in a House swing district, but support for President-elect Donald Trump expanded as Republicans gained more legislative power. seats, reflecting a shift in voters’ sentiments.
Democratic presidential candidates have won seven of the last eight general elections in New Mexico, but the results of Tuesday’s election show the state has made similar gains to Trump’s nationally.
Trump — who lost New Mexico by about 8 percentage points in 2016 and by nearly 11 percentage points in 2020 — has narrowed that deficit, doing so in historically Democratic counties as well as Republican strongholds, according to unofficial results obtained by The Associated Press.
“That’s a breakthrough for Republicans at the presidential level,” New Mexico-based political columnist Joe Monahan said as ballots were being counted. “Where did those voices come from?”
With about 98% of votes counted in New Mexico, the former president received support in all but three of New Mexico’s 33 counties in Tuesday’s election, compared to 2020. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, received a majority of Tuesday’s votes. 13 counties in New Mexico.
Trump traveled to New Mexico on October 31 to hold a rally in the final days of the campaign, taking a risky detour from the seven battleground states to court Latino voters. New Mexico has the highest percentage of Latino voters in the country. Harris did not visit the state after becoming president.
Isaiah Blas, 25, waited in line for hours to see Trump in Albuquerque last month. He pointed to the sea of people in red “Make America Great Again” hats surrounding him and said it was a sign that the trajectory of politics in the state could be changing.
“I think a lot of New Mexicans are getting tired of these Democrats saying they’re going to do it and they’re not doing anything for the New Mexicans,” Blas said, pointing to the state’s persistent and dismal ranking in crime rates in the whole country. and educational outcomes. “We’re just tired of it because we have Democrat after Democrat after Democrat. Are we getting better? No.”
The shift toward voting for Trump played out in Democratic-dominated cities along the Rio Grande corridor, including Doña Ana, Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties.
At the same time, Republican legislative candidates captured at least one seat in the state House and two in the Senate, averting the possibility of a Democratic supermajority.
Democrats lost control of a recently redistricted Senate seat to a Republican candidate who backed Trump’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block of Rio Rancho won that seat after 2022, when he twice voted against certifying local election results while raising questions about election integrity.
Meanwhile, Republican Gabriel Ramos of Silver City in southwestern New Mexico won a Senate seat vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill.
Ramos previously held the seat as a Democrat and was ousted in the 2020 primary after voting against a bill to repeal a 1969 New Mexico law that criminalized abortion. The bill later passed, ensuring abortion access statewide after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Additionally, Republican Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences unseated a Democrat to return to the State House after unsuccessfully seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2018.
One race for the House of Representatives and one race for the Senate were too close to call — the state’s only undecided legislative races.
Democrats still control every statewide office in New Mexico, all three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the state Supreme Court.
And unofficial results obtained by the AP showed Heinrich winning by about 10 percentage points over Republican Nella Domenici, the daughter of longtime U.S. Sen. Pete V. Domenici — in her first bid for public office.
Vasquez won reelection in New Mexico’s swing district along the U.S.-Mexico border in a hard-fought rematch against Republican Yvette Herrell, whom he ousted in 2022.
Herrell ran her fourth straight campaign for Congress in the predominantly Latino district that stretches from the border to Albuquerque.
Vasquez, a former Las Cruces city councilman, drew on his knowledge of the border region and its economy as the U.S.-born son of immigrants from Mexico.
After winning Tuesday night, he pledged to serve local voters “regardless of how they voted” in a celebratory statement in English and Spanish.
“We can do it, we did it and now we’re going back to work. Long live the Second District,” Vasquez wrote in Spanish. ___
Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
