New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District House Race

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján will face Republican Larry Marker on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for New Mexico's U.S. Senate seat, a six-year term paying $174,000 annually. Luján won his primary decisively, while the state Republican Party failed to field an official candidate, prompting Marker, a Roswell oil and gas businessman, to mount a write-in campaign that drew nearly as many votes as Luján's primary opponent.

Luján, in office since 2020 and a veteran of New Mexico politics, cites the cost of living and water access as top priorities, touts legislation like the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, and has criticized Trump administration policies on tariffs, Medicaid and immigration enforcement. Marker, making his first bid for statewide office after previous unsuccessful runs, is focused on stabilizing Social Security, reducing federal debt, and supporting oil, gas and ranching industries, while expressing measured support for Trump's agenda. Republicans haven't won statewide in New Mexico in a decade, but Marker points to shifting voter registration trends as reason for optimism.

Civil rights leader and labor organizer Dolores Huerta died Wednesday at age 96. Co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, Huerta coined the rallying cry "Sí, se puede!" during a 1972 Phoenix protest against an anti-labor law and spent decades advocating for farmworkers, women, and civil rights, including later campaigns against SB1070 and for the Equal Rights Amendment.

Arizona officials across parties and government, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Greg Stanton and Adelita Grijalva, Attorney General Kris Mayes, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, and Councilmember Betty Guardado, praised her lasting influence on the state and nation. A candlelight vigil was held outside Phoenix City Hall in her honor.

Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a former New Mexico House majority leader and Albuquerque Public Schools administrator, pleaded guilty to state fraud and money laundering charges, three weeks after a federal jury convicted her of dozens of similar charges in a related case. State prosecutors had charged her with money laundering, racketeering and other counts in 2021, ahead of an October trial. Under the plea deal, all but four charges were dropped, with an agreed 10.5-year prison sentence and more than $1.8 million in restitution. A New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson said the plea holds Stapleton accountable for defrauding taxpayers, and noted the federal sentence will exceed what the state system alone could impose.

Prosecutors say Stapleton, as the district's career and technical education director, steered more than $3 million in federal vocational education funds to Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company owned by her friend and federal co-defendant Joseph Johnson, by pushing its invoices through procurement while he supplied blank checks to her. She resigned from the legislature and was fired by the district after a 2021 search of her home. Both she and Johnson, also convicted federally, have yet to be sentenced and have signaled plans to appeal.