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New Mexico Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of three New Mexico Supreme Court justices expired on December 31, 2022. Two seats were up for partisan election and one seat was up for retention election on November 8, 2022. A primary was scheduled for June 7, 2022. The filing deadline for the partisan election was March 24, 2022. The filing deadline for the retention election was June 30, 2022.
New Mexico was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Vargas' seat
General election
General election for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Julie Vargas defeated Thomas Montoya in the general election for New Mexico Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Julie Vargas (D) | 52.7 | 366,369 |
| Thomas Montoya (R) | 47.3 | 328,475 | ||
| Total votes: 694,844 | |||
 = 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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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Julie Vargas advanced from the Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Julie Vargas | 100.0 | 114,820 |
| Total votes: 114,820 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Thomas Montoya advanced from the Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Thomas Montoya | 100.0 | 90,934 | |
| Total votes: 90,934 | |||
| = 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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Zamora's seat
General election
General election for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Briana H. Zamora defeated Kerry Morris in the general election for New Mexico Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Briana H. Zamora (D) | 54.2 | 375,836 |
 | Kerry Morris (R) | 45.8 | 318,215 | |
| Total votes: 694,051 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Briana H. Zamora advanced from the Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Briana H. Zamora | 100.0 | 114,245 |
| Total votes: 114,245 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Kerry Morris advanced from the Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kerry Morris | 100.0 | 91,298 |
| Total votes: 91,298 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Vigil's seat
New Mexico Supreme Court
Michael E. Vigil was retained to the New Mexico Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 69.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
69.3
|
408,573 | ||
No |
30.7
|
180,965 | |||
Total Votes |
589,538 | ||||
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Voting information
- See also: Voting in New Mexico
About the New Mexico Supreme Court
- See also: New Mexico Supreme Court
The New Mexico Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the state of New Mexico. The court is composed of five justices: four associate justices and one chief justice.[1]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election.
| ■ Shannon Bacon | Appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) in 2019; elected in 2020 | |
| ■ Julie Vargas | Appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) in 2020 | |
| ■ David Thomson | Appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) in 2019; elected in 2020 | |
| ■ Michael Vigil | Elected in 2018 | |
| ■ Briana H. Zamora | Appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) in 2021 |
Selection
- See also: Partisan election of judges
The five justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court are chosen by assisted gubernatorial appointment. A new appointee must stand in the next partisan election after his or her appointment. If a sitting judge wishes to serve additional terms, he or she must compete in an uncontested retention election and receive at least 57 percent of the vote. In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of qualified candidates recommended by the judicial nominating commission. The newly appointed judge must run in the next general election to serve out the remainder of the unexpired term. To win further full terms, the judge must stand for retention by voters thereafter.[2]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must:
- be the minimum age of 35;
- have practiced law for the ten years preceding assumption of office;
- be a state resident of at least three years preceding assumption of office.[2]
Selection of the chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote to serve a two-year term. Traditionally, the supreme court chooses the most senior justice to fill the role.[2]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 5
- Number of cases: 23
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 87.0% (20)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Barbara Vigil (9)
- Per curiam decisions: 0
- Concurring opinions: 0
- Dissenting opinions: 3
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Judith Nakamura (3)
For the study's full set of findings in New Mexico, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[3]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[4]
New Mexico had a Court Balance Score of -5.6, indicating Democrat control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ New Mexico Supreme Court, ""Overview,"" accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: New Mexico," archived October 3, 2014
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Mexico • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Mexico
State courts:
New Mexico Supreme Court • New Mexico Court of Appeals • New Mexico District Courts • New Mexico Magistrate Court • New Mexico Municipal Courts • New Mexico Probate Courts • New Mexico Problem-Solving Courts • New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration Court • Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court
State resources:
Courts in New Mexico • New Mexico judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Mexico
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