The Democratic incumbent defeated Republican Greg Cunningham to secure a third term after a nationally watched contest that drew more than $21 million in campaign spending.

Patrick Lohmann and Leah Romero, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Following a campaign with national interest and millions of special interest dollars, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez on Tuesday night held on to his seat representing New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District.

Vasquez, now reelected to his third term, won the race by 57.9 % against Republican Greg Cunningham, a former Marine and Albuquerque police officer. The Associated Press called the race for Vasquez shortly after 10 p.m. with an estimated 80% of votes counted.

The incumbent’s victory in the 2nd Congressional District comes after individual donors and outside political action committees spent upwards of $21 million on the closely watched race. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee saw flipping the seat as important to its goals of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump’s super PAC and others pumped millions of dollars toward television and other ads, many of which sought to cast Vasquez as soft on crime. 

Trump also endorsed Cunningham in the race, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) visited the state twice to stump for him. 

On the Democratic side, super PACs backed by Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and others purchased advertising saying Cunningham, if elected, would fall fully in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda. 

The 2nd Congressional District race has been the most competitive New Mexico congressional race in recent years and has flipped multiple times over the last decade. Republican Yvette Herrell held the seat between 2020 and 2022, before narrowly losing to Vasquez by just over 1,200 votes. 

Redistricting in 2021 gave Democrats a better shot at winning the seat, including by carving a portion of Albuquerque’s Democrat-heavy South Valley into what was previously a predominately southern New Mexico district. 

State Republicans sued over the new boundaries, but a judge ultimately upheld them, noting that the seat remained competitive despite the changes and contained a roughly equal share of Republicans.

Earlier in the evening, Vasquez spoke to reporters from his election party in Las Cruces, saying the country “is at a verge of a breaking point. Economically, New Mexico families are not doing well, so we need to change course in Washington. We need to end this corruption. We need to give working families in this district a chance. We need to make sure that we protect our democracy, our voting rights, and restore dignity and decency to this country and end the rampant corruption in Washington.”

Source NM asked Vasquez what he’d found surprising on the campaign trail and he said that people “are very upset with the current economic policies of this Trump administration, but more than just that, they’re upset with both parties. They’re tired of inaction in Congress. They are tired of what they consider to be policies that haven’t benefited their personal life. And I think that is a referendum in this election.:

Vasquez announced on Nov. 1 that he and his fiancée, Nikki, announced they welcomed their first son to the world. On election night, he said he’d had about 12 hours of sleep over the previous 48 hours.

“Having an Election Day baby is a little bit stressful, but I am still proud and it’s actually renewed my commitment now being a parent for the first time to make sure that every family, including my own son, has a bright future ahead of them. It’s been a lot of swaddling and learning how to be a new dad, and I’m very proud of that.”

Vasquez said having been reelected, “I pledge to be the fighter that you deserve. A defender of civil rights, a fighter for the working class and a congressman with unrelenting fight, loyalty to this district and the integrity to serve without the influence of special interests. But you, and all Americans and all New Mexicans, expect us to govern and rightly so. That means getting things done.”

He also spoke of the Trump administration, saying: “In the last two years, we’ve seen the transformation of the American dream turn into the American nightmare. With Democrats winning a majority in the U.S. House and Senate, he noted, “the time for real accountability and reform is finally here. The day of reckoning for the corrupt Trump administration has come.”

As for the 2nd Congressional District, he said, “what unites us in this district is our love for this beautiful state, our love for Nuevo Mexico. Never, and I repeat, never ‘New America.’”

Patrick Lohmann is a reporter for Source New Mexico. Leah Romero is a freelance writer based in southern New Mexico. She can be reached at www.LeahRRomero.com.