Judge disqualifies Republican NM Rep. Rebecca Dow from June primary ballot
A judge removed Republican Rep. Rebecca Dow from the June primary ballot after ruling her nominating paperwork did not meet state requirements.
Court finds incumbent did not properly fill out paperwork
Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.
New Mexico state Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Elephant Butte) announced on Wednesday morning that she had lost a legal challenge to her re-election campaign’s legitimacy and won’t appear on the June 2 primary ballot. The Republican, who first won the seat in 2016 and unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022, said she plans to appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Tara Jaramillo, a Democrat who previously held Dow’s District 38 seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives, filed a challenge in court and alleged that Dow filed flawed paperwork when she sought reelection.
Specifically, Jaramillo alleged that Dow’s paperwork incorrectly said she was seeking the office of “House of Repres,” not “House of Representatives, District 38.” Her complaint also alleged that Dow submitted screenshots of nominating petitions rather than the forms required under state law.
“I thought, ‘Well, everybody knows what she’s running for.’ That wasn’t really my concern,” Jaramillo told Source NM. “When I looked deeper into it, I noticed she submitted screenshots rather than the petitions themselves. Since I had filed similar petitions, I knew that that was improper.”
In an amended order Wednesday morning, a Third Judicial District judge agreed and wrote that the county clerk’s qualification for Dow as a candidate should be undone.
Dow was unopposed in the primary election, and faced a write-in Democratic candidate in the Nov. 3 general election, according to New Mexico Secretary of State records. Jaramillo said she has no plans to run for the seat.
In a lengthy statement posted to social media, Dow said she planned to appeal.
“Recently, a district court decision removed my name from the ballot. I want you to hear directly from me: this was not about whether I earned your support,” she wrote. “We gathered the required signatures. We followed the process to qualify. Instead, this decision came down to a dispute over paperwork—a technical issue that has now resulted in our district having no candidate on the ballot.”
Dow wrote that the issue at hand came down to a technicality.
“I have always believed that elections should be decided by the people, not by technicalities,” Dow wrote. “Our system is strongest when it protects access, encourages participation, and respects the will of the voters. What has happened here falls short of those principles.”
Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.
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