ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – With the primary election over, candidates are gearing up for the general election in November. There’s one race in New Mexico that is expected to heat up and gain national attention. Democratic representative Gabe Vasquez will face off against former Republican congresswoman Yvette Herrell for Congressional District Two.
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“All of us experts that cover the congress stuff over the course of the overall election season put this as one of the most competitive, must-watch races in the nation,” said Gabe Sanchez, Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico and KRQE political analyst.
He said it will be a contentious race. “It’s going to get ugly,” said Sanchez. “Obviously, these folks have a history running against each other, these folks know the district.”
In recent years, the seat has flipped between Democrats and Republicans. In 2022, Vasquez took the seat from Herrell in the first election since the redistricting of New Mexico’s Congressional map. Republicans accused Democrats of redrawing that district for political gain while Democrats maintain it was part of the normal redistricting process done every ten years. The new map took a chunk of eastern New Mexico out of CD2 and added part of the Albuquerque metro to what was a mostly conservative voting district. The issue made its way to the state Supreme Court last year.
“One of the key questions will be how much is redistricting going to help Vasquez and the flip side of that, how much will there a Trump bump,” said Sanchez. “When we look at Herrell successes and her losses, a lot of that has been essentially riding the Trump wave.”
He noted the presidential ticket could influence who turns out to vote and therefore who represents New Mexico in Washington.
“I always said if redistricting was going to matter, it was going to matter much more in a presidential cycle when you get all those young Latino voters that were redistricted and enthused, turn out in a presidential race. But the question is, how big is that Trump bump going to be?”
The general election day is Tuesday, November 5.
