Republican announces run for 3rd Congressional District

Optimistic about the state’s new political boundaries following redistricting, Republican Alexis Martinez Johnson announced Monday she is making another run for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District.

Long a Democratic stronghold, the newly configured district is now rated “highly competitive” by the political tracker FiveThirtyEight. While the district still encompasses all of Northern New Mexico, Republican-leaning areas in the southeastern part of the state, where Martinez Johnson was born and raised, were pulled into the new boundaries.

“I was not considering being a part of this race ... where the lines stood before,” Martinez Johnson, 40, told a small group gathered for a news conference outside the Roundhouse.

“I wanted to see another path of making a difference in New Mexico,” she continued, “but when I saw such disregard for the voters [during a special session in December on redistricting], I said, ‘You know, we cannot stand for that. We must stand up.’ “

The heavily Democratic Legislature approved the new boundaries in what is widely believed to be an attempt to win the Republican-leaning 2nd Congressional District, which encompasses the southern part of the state.

Martinez Johnson, an environmental engineer, ran unsuccessfully for the Congressional seat in 2020. While campaigning outside on the Santa Fe Plaza in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, police cited her for refusing to wear a mask.

“Laws were created where everyone should be masked outside, and we have now found out that the science just does not support that,” she said.

“However, if I enter this building, I put a mask on.”

Martinez Johnson said she’s vaccinated against COVID-19 and “promotes” getting the vaccine.

“We shouldn’t be wrestling anybody on the ground over here per se, but I do believe that people need to speak with their doctor and, after consultation with their doctor, make that decision for them,” she said.

Martinez Johnson also ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Santa Fe in November’s election.

Martinez Johnson is hoping to make history as the first female Republican to represent the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Curry and Roosevelt counties.

The district has elected only one Republican, Bill Redmond in 1997, since its creation in 1983.

Redmond, who won the seat in a special election to fill a vacancy, ran for a full term the next year and lost to Democrat Tom Udall.

Martinez Johnson said the mood among the electorate is changing.

“Nationally, you’re seeing with the Virginia election upset, the tide is turning,” she said, referring to Republican victories in that state during the November elections.

Voters are also concerned about inflation, she said.

“People are seeing those prices rise and rise, and they are seeing the gas increase, and we have these politicians that do not care,” she said.

Martinez Johnson also said her chances of winning the congressional seat are stronger now.

“I carried seven of the counties of the 16 that we had before,” she said. “We now have 18 counties, and I look to take Chaves, Eddy, Lea and increase the voting in McKinley County, in our Navajo Nation, as well as in our Jicarilla Apache Nation.”

Martinez Johnson said the district reflects her life. She was born in Portales, raised in Roswell, worked in the Permian Basin in Lea and Eddy counties and lives in Santa Fe.

“This district really encompasses my life experience,” she said. “This new district incorporating Hobbs, Artesia and the Permian Basin where I used to work in the energy industry, where I promoted environmental stewardship, is definitely going to be a boon in this race.”

The seat is currently held by U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, who is serving her first term in Congress.

Kyra Ellis-Moore, Leger Fernández’s campaign manager, did not return messages seeking comment.