Election officials disqualified just one state House of Representatives candidate seeking a spot on the June 2 primary ballot, according to online records.
Tuesday marked the deadline for election officials to qualify candidates for statewide and county offices who filed paperwork to run last week.
Each of the state House of Representatives’ 70 seats is up for re-election this year, though fewer than one-third of incumbents face a challenger.
Brandy Laughter, the vice chair of the Democratic Party of McKinley County, initially filed to run for the District 9 seat currently held by Rep. Patricia “Patty” Lundstrom (D-Gallup) on March 10. However, she told Source NM that when she turned in her nominating petition, she had accidentally marked it “2025” instead of for this year. That “rookie mistake” invalidated all of the signatures she gathered, she said.
“I take full responsibility. You have to learn the ropes,” Laughter told Source NM Wednesday. “Maybe this wasn’t my year, but it’s always a race, so never give up.”
Tuesday was also the last chance for major party candidates who didn’t fare well at New Mexico’s Republican and Democrat pre-primary conventions to turn in enough signatures to make the June 2 primary ballot. Officials with the Secretary of State have until March 24 to notify those candidates of whether they made the ballot, a spokesperson told Source NM.
Some candidates — like Republican gubernatorial candidates Duke Rodriguez and Sen. Steve Lanier (R-Aztec) — did not earn enough support at their party’s pre-primary convention to automatically make the ballot, though both candidates told Source NM they turned in enough signatures to make the ballot. Neither candidate participated in the party’s pre-primary convention in Ruidoso. To make the ballot without pre-primary convention approval, candidates must turn in signatures equal to 4% of their party’s vote — for Republicans, that’s 2,351 signatures. Rodriguez and Lanier said they turned in about 8,000 and 6,000 signatures, respectively.
“I feel good. Just getting that many signatures says a lot,” Lanier said Wednesday.
Jonas Moya, a Democrat running for State Land commissioner, and Matt Dodson, a self-described Democratic Socialist running for U.S. Senate, both announced that they qualified for the ballot.
Moya will face Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) in the primary. Dodson is running against U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.)
Sonya Smith, a former state cabinet secretary, also did not garner enough support at the Democrat pre-primary convention to make the June ballot. She did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment, but in a public social media post, she acknowledged that she would not advance.
Finally, Tuesday was an equally important day for those seeking office as write-in candidates, who had until the end of day to file signatures to run for office. The Secretary of State has until Friday to notify them of whether they qualify for the election.
Running as a write-in candidate is traditionally an uphill battle as their names are not printed on the ballot. But for some, like former Public Regulation Commission member Jim Ellison, a Republican formerly seeking a place on the gubernatorial ticket, it presented an opportunity to drop out of one crowded race and find another with an uncontested primary.
As of Wednesday, seven write-in candidates filed to run, according to the Secretary of State.
Other write-ins who filed to run Tuesday include Roswell Republican Larry Marker for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Ben Ray Luján; Albuquerque Republican Joshua James Ryan Lawrence for the Office of the State Auditor; Albuquerque Republican Richard Zubia for the state House of Representatives seat currently held by Democrat Rep. Miguel García; Radium Springs Democrat David Mooney for the state House seat currently held by Republican Rebecca Dow; Rio Rancho Republican Adam Prior for the state House seat held by Democrat Kathleen Cates; and Albuquerque Democrat Jacob Trujillo for the Public Education Commission.
