Garcia Holmes is the projected winner in GOP District 1 race
She pledges to ‘turn New Mexico red’ in match against Democrat Haaland
Michelle Garcia Holmes pledged “to turn New Mexico red” as the apparent winner of the Republican 1st Congressional District primary race Tuesday night.
“We’re going to beat Deb Haaland,” she said, giving credit to her family and volunteers for working to get out the vote during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unofficial partial returns had Garcia Holmes, a former chief of staff for the Attorney General’s Office, leading Albuquerque attorney Jared Vander Dussen. She garnered more than 48% of the vote to Vander Dussen’s 40%. Sante Fe businessman Brett Kokinadis was in third, with more than 12%.
“Kudos to Jared and Brett, they ran great campaigns,” Garcia Holmes said. “They kept us on our toes.”
Congresswoman Haaland congratulated Holmes on her victory. She was unopposed in the Democratic primary and pledged to work to help her fellow Democrats win up and down the ballot.
She canceled an election watch party to participate in a podcast to show support for protesters upset about the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Even though I didn’t have an opponent, we had a lot of folks out there making sure we got the votes out and making sure everyone knew what to do with their absentee ballots,” Haaland told the Journal.
Garcia Holmes will be an underdog in the race against Haaland, pollster Brian Sanderoff said.
“In her first run, she (Haaland) won by almost 23 (percentage) points against a formidable opponent in Janice Arnold-Jones,” he said.
Sanderoff said 2018 was an unusual election year, with Democrats winning all 13 races on the ballot “in the Blue Wave” with President Donald Trump in the middle of his term. But he said Bernalillo County, the most populous county in the district, has been trending Democratic in federal elections.
“They’re going to have to convince the Republican Congressional Committee to commit more money to the race, like it has in CD2,” Sanderoff said.
So far, that has not happened. As of May 13, outside groups have spent more than $91,000 in the district, compared to the $2.5 million in the 2nd Congressional District race in southern New Mexico and more than $1.2 million in the 3rd Congressional District in the northern part of the state, according to Opensecrets.org.
Haaland’s campaign had a large fundraising advantage at that time, with $302,000 cash on hand. Garcia Holmes had more than $128,000.
He said the Republican nominee stood to benefit if Trump’s reelection campaign remained focused on the state and committed some of its resources to the race.