New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (June 4 Democratic primary)

2026 → ← 2022
New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: Candidates seeking pre-primary designation February 6, 2024; All other candidates March 12, 2024
Primary: June 4, 2024 General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voting in New Mexico
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic DDHQ and The Hill: Safe Democratic Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd New Mexico elections, 2024 U.S. Congress elections, 2024 U.S. Senate elections, 2024 U.S. House elections, 2024 Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

A Democratic Party primary took place on June 4, 2024, in New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Incumbent Teresa Leger Fernandez advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Mexico District 3.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies. As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 58.2%-41.8%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 54.4%-43.6%.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
Candidates seeking pre-primary designation February 6, 2024; All other candidates March 12, 2024	June 4, 2024	November 5, 2024

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. New Mexico utilizes a semi-closed primary process; participation in each party's primary is limited to registered party members and unaffiliated voters.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (June 4 Republican primary)
• New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House New Mexico District 3

Incumbent Teresa Leger Fernandez advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Mexico District 3 on June 4, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Teresa Leger Fernandez	100.0	46,008

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 46,008
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Candidate profiles

There were no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles would have appeared here as candidates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Voting information

See also: Voting in New Mexico

Election information in New Mexico: June 4, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

• In-person: June 4, 2024
• By mail: Received by May 7, 2024
• Online: May 7, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

N/A

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

• In-person: May 21, 2024
• By mail: Received by May 21, 2024
• Online: May 21, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

• In-person: June 4, 2024
• By mail: Received by June 4, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

May 7, 2024 to June 1, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (MST)

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Teresa Leger Fernandez	Democratic Party	$2,123,600	$1,748,502	$407,926	As of December 31, 2024
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

• District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
• Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
• Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
• State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

• District map
• Competitiveness
• Presidential elections
• State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in New Mexico.

New Mexico U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	3	3	0	7	6	0	1	16.7%	0	0.0%
2022	3	3	0	8	6	1	1	33.3%	0	0.0%
2020	3	3	1	19	6	1	3	66.7%	0	0.0%
2018	3	3	2	15	6	2	1	50.0%	0	0.0%
2016	3	3	0	7	6	0	1	16.7%	0	0.0%
2014	3	3	0	8	6	1	1	33.3%	1	33.3%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in New Mexico in 2024. Information below was calculated on March 18, 2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Seven candidates filed to run 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.

No seats were open in 2024, meaning all incumbents ran 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 filed to run for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, the most candidates who ran for a district in 2024. The candidates included Democratic incumbent Melanie Ann Stansbury and two Republicans.

The Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District was the only contested primary, tying with 2016 as the fewest this decade. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 2.4 primaries were contested.

No incumbents faced primary challengers in 2024. The last year 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 were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+4. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 4 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made New Mexico's 3rd the 178th most Democratic district nationally.

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in New Mexico's 3rd based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
54.4%	43.6%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district. The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
56.0	42.1	D+14.0

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in New Mexico, 2020

New Mexico presidential election results (1900-2020)

• 16 Democratic wins
• 12 Republican wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	N/A	N/A	N/A	D	D	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	R	D	D	D	D

See also: Party control of New Mexico state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of New Mexico's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from New Mexico
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	2	3	5
Republican	0	0	0
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	3	5

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in New Mexico's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in New Mexico, May 2024
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Michelle Lujan Grisham
Lieutenant Governor	Howie Morales
Secretary of State	Maggie Toulouse Oliver
Attorney General	Raul Torrez

State legislature

New Mexico State Senate

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	27
	Republican Party	15
	Independent	0
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		42

New Mexico House of Representatives

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	45
	Republican Party	25
	Independent	0
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		70

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

New Mexico Party Control: 1992-2024
Seventeen years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Governor	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in New Mexico in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in New Mexico, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
New Mexico	U.S. House	Democratic	835	N/A	2/6/2024 if seeking pre-primary designation; 3/12/2024 if not	Source
New Mexico	U.S. House	Libertarian	88	N/A	2/6/2024 if seeking pre-primary designation; 3/12/2024 if not	Source
New Mexico	U.S. House	Republican	783	N/A	2/6/2024 if seeking pre-primary designation; 3/12/2024 if not	Source
New Mexico	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	4,715	N/A	6/27/2024	Source

See also

• New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (June 4 Republican primary)
• New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024
• United States House elections in New Mexico, 2024 (June 4 Democratic primaries)
• United States House elections in New Mexico, 2024 (June 4 Republican primaries)
• United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2024
• United States House Republican Party primaries, 2024
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2024
• U.S. House battlegrounds, 2024

External links

Suggest a link

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Footnotes

[show]

New Mexico's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Martin Heinrich (D)

Ben Luján (D)

Representatives

District 1

Melanie Ann Stansbury (D)

District 2

Gabriel Vasquez (D)

District 3

Teresa Leger Fernandez (D)

Democratic Party (5)

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