The highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives has endorsed former Representative Yvette Herrell (R-NM-02) in a crucial congressional race next year.
“Yvette is the right choice to return this seat to Republican hands as we work to grow our House majority and get America back on track,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) said in a statement included in a press release issued late Friday by the Herrell campaign.
Johnson, a four-term Louisiana lawmaker who ascended to the speakership in October, referred to Herrell in the statement as “a dependable conservative leader who represented New Mexico’s 2nd District with diligence and integrity.”
Herrell, who represented southern New Mexico in the U.S. House from 2021 until 2023, said she was honored by Johnson’s endorsement and described him as a good friend.
“Speaker Johnson knows how critical this race is to growing the GOP majority in the House,” she said.
Democrat Gabriel Vasquez narrowly defeated Herrell in her bid for a second term. A former Las Cruces city councilor, Vasquez managed to oust Herrell by a margin of 0.7%, or 1,350 votes.
No other Republican has so far filed with the Federal Election Commission to raise and spend money for a primary challenge against Herrell. But Johnson’s public backing of the Alamogordo Republican is the latest sign the party is trying to close ranks behind her as their standard bearer.
When Herrell officially declared her intention to pursue the Republican nomination in the 2nd Congressional District, she did so at an event in April in Las Cruces, with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy by her side and contributing $10,000 to her war chest.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA-01), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN-06) and House Republican Conference Chair Elsie Stefanik (R-NY-21) have each issued statements supporting Herrell’s campaign.
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline House conservatives loyal to former President Donald Trump and which Herrell was a member of during her tenure in Congress, has spent $72,834 in support of Herrell through their political action committee the House Freedom Fund.
No Democrat has yet filed to run against Vasquez for the seat, making a rematch of the 2022 election likely next year.
On Friday, Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Jessica Velasquez sought to frame both Johnson and Herrell as extreme, noting their firm stance against abortion rights and their votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
“With Yvette Herrell’s record of toeing the Republican party line, she could be counted on to vote however GOP leadership tells her to, just as she always has. Johnson endorsed Herrell because she has always been beholden to hyper-partisan Washington Republican leadership,” Velasquez said in a press release Friday.
Political observers have ranked the New Mexico 2nd Congressional District as one of a handful of tossup races in the 2024 election cycle.
Polling in the race is scant. But a survey commissioned by KOB and conducted by SurveyUSA of 541 voters between Sept. 6 and 12 showed Herrell edging out Vasquez 46 to 45%, with another 9% undecided. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4.8%.
For decades, the 2nd Congressional District tilted Republican, stretching from southern Albuquerque down to the border with Mexico, and spanned from the oil patch communities in the east to ranch lands and national forests along the border with Arizona.
But the district has since become more competitive after the state’s Democratic-led Legislature crafted a map that swapped out parts of the reliably conservative southeastern part of the state out of the 2nd District and replaced them with portions of more Democratic-friendly west Albuquerque.
Chaves County had been previously located entirely within the 2nd Congressional District. But under the revamped map, only one precinct in the county remains in that district. The rest of the county is split between the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts.
Republicans, along with other plaintiffs including Roswell Mayor Timothy Jennings, had filed a lawsuit, arguing that the redrawn 2nd Congressional District represented a partisan gerrymander that dilutes Republican votes and violates the New Mexico Constitution.
In November, the New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that keeps the map in place.