This year’s filing deadline for candidates running for Congress in New Mexico was March 12, 2024.
Seven candidates are running for New Mexico’s three U.S. House districts, including three Democrats and four Republicans. That’s 2.3 candidates per district, less than in the previous three election cycles. There were 2.67 candidates per district in 2022, 6.3 candidates per district in 2020, and five in 2018.
Here are some other highlights from this year’s filings:
- No seats are open this year, meaning all incumbents are running for re-election. There was one House seat open in 2020 and two in 2018, the only two election cycles this decade in which House seats were open.
- Three candidates are running for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, the most candidates running for a district this year. The candidates include Democratic incumbent Melanie Ann Stansbury and two Republicans.
- The Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District is the only contested primary this year, tying with 2016 as the fewest this decade. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 2.4 primaries were contested.
- No incumbents are facing primary challengers this year. The last election cycle an incumbent was in a contested primary was 2014 when then-incumbent Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D) and Robert Blanch ran in the 3rd Congressional District.
- Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all three districts, meaning no seats are guaranteed to either party.
New Mexico and four other states—Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota—are holding primaries on June 4.
In New Mexico, the winner of a primary election is the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes, even if they do not win more than 50 percent of votes cast.
