Tara Jaramillo will face Sandy Hammack in NM House District 38

This story was updated on June 8 at 9:40 a.m. to include comment from Sandra Hammack.

LAS CRUCES – Redistricting has drastically altered the New Mexico House district represented by Republican Rebecca Dow since 2017, and the June 7 primary elections portend a contest between two new faces.

Democrat Tara Jaramillo and Republican Sandy Hammack, both Socorro County residents, handily won their parties' nominations in state House District 38 Tuesday night, according to preliminary results.

It was the only House district with contested primaries in Doña Ana County.

All legislative districts in New Mexico have been redrawn based on the 2020 U.S. Census. Representatives for the new districts will be selected in the Nov. 8 general elections.

The new District 38 starts from Socorro at its northern tip and includes parts of Sierra and Doña Ana counties, encompassing portions of White Sands Missile Range and part of Truth or Consequences, reaching south into Hatch and Radium Springs.

Dow, the district's current representative, chose not to run for another term, seeking the Republican nomination for governor instead.

More: Mark Ronchetti wins GOP primary for New Mexico governor

Because the new district divides Truth or Consequences, where Dow lives, she no longer resides in District 38 but instead in the new District 49.

Per Census data, District 38 will represent 30,680 people and is estimated to lean slightly Democratic over Republican.

All four primary candidates hailed from Socorro County. Two Democrats and two Republicans vied for the nomination while New Mexico's third major party, the Libertarians, has no candidates running in the district.

Among the Democrats, Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker, who has held that office since 1990, competed with Jaramillo, a speech-language pathologist and current member of the Socorro Consolidated Schools board of education.

Jaramillo had racked up key endorsements from progressive Democrats U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and four legislators from neighboring districts: State Sens. Siah Correa Hemphill and Bill Soules, and state Reps. Nathan Small and Joanne Ferrary.

As preliminary results were reported, Jaramillo's margin pulled away from Bhasker's. It was especially lopsided in Sierra and Doña Ana counties, but even in Socorro County the mayor trailed Jaramillo by 11 percent.

Bhasker could not be reached Tuesday night.

With a convincing lead, Jaramillo said, "I believe that I took it, I just don't know how big of a margin that will be."

When all of the unofficial results were in, Jaramillo had claimed 65 percent of the votes cast.

Bhasker previously ran for the state House in 2004, when he lost to incumbent Republican Don Tripp.

The Republican contenders consisted of Hammack, a San Antonio agriculturalist and former county Republican Party chair and Melba Aguilar, a science teacher at Socorro High School making her first run for office.

This contest, too, saw an early lopsided margin, this one for Hammack, who pulled 74 percent of the vote in unofficial results.

With preliminary results trending strongly in her rival's favor, Aguilar said she was preparing to call Hammack and concede, but her mood was upbeat.

"Regardless of party, people are kind of fed up and hurting," she said, "but also, everywhere we go people share these really beautiful stories. So it's increased my hope and love for the state, for sure."

Hammack  said she looked forward to representing a district with a variety of needs for urban and rural communities.

"It is a very diverse district," she said. "I'm going to focus on what I believe in, work with the constituents and may the best person win."

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Jaramillo will face Sandy Hammack in New Mexico House District 38