Stansbury, Sedillo Lopez in runoff for Democratic nomination

Mar. 31—The race within the state Democratic Party to secure a path toward U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's vacated congressional seat is headed to a runoff.

After none of the eight candidates received more than 50 percent of votes cast Tuesday by state Democratic Party central committee members from the 1st Congressional District, the members will have a second round of voting to choose between state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Rep. Melanie Stansbury to face Republican Mark Moores in the June 1 special election.

Both Sedillo Lopez and Stansbury represent districts in Albuquerque.

Sedillo Lopez received 74 of 199 votes Tuesday. Stansbury finished second with 43 votes. Albuquerque Attorney Randi McGinn finished short of the runoff in third place with 34 votes.

Final voting by the committee will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Sedillo Lopez, a retired law professor at the University of New Mexico, grew up in Los Chavez, a small town south of Albuquerque. She ran for the congressional seat in 2018 and finished third in a six-way primary, securing half as many votes as Haaland. She was appointed to the state Senate in 2019 and was comfortably reelected in November. On her campaign website, she says she supports progressive policies such as Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and free higher education.

"I am thrilled to be the top vote-getter. The State Central Committee members represent all corners of CD-1 and were a diverse group of people with a variety of perspectives on the future of our party and our country," Sedillo Lopez wrote in an email Tuesday night from the Senate floor, where lawmakers were convened for a special session. "I learned so much from speaking to committee members from our most rural communities in Torrance County, Meadow Lake and surrounding areas, parts of Rio Rancho and of course Albuquerque. I will work hard to make State Central Committee members proud to support me."

Stansbury, who grew up in Albuquerque and has experience in Washington, D.C., with the White House Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, defeated a seven-term Republican incumbent in 2018 to win her seat in the Roundhouse. She also says she supports Medicare for All.

"With eight candidates in this race, it's been a tireless effort to get here. My team is thrilled to advance to the runoff," Stansbury said by phone Tuesday night. "Heading into tomorrow, we're going to roll out a few more endorsements, and I feel like we have strong momentum and community support."

Democrats have held the 1st Congressional District since 2009. According to the Democratic Party of New Mexico, the state central committee within the district has 204 members — 190 in Bernalillo County, eight in Sandoval County, three in Torrance County, two in Valencia County and one in Santa Fe County.

Along with Moores, a state senator who has represented Albuquerque's Northeast Heights since 2013, Christopher Manning, who received 5.4 percent of the vote in 2018, will again be the Libertarian Party candidate in the race.