| IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 10, 2026 Albuquerque, NM – New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez is urging the Doña Ana County Commission to appoint an interim replacement for House District 37 following the retirement of longtime Rep. Joanne Ferrary. This is a clear scheme to manipulate voters and comes as we are now just 84 days away from a contested election in HD-37. RPNM releases the following statement: “By appointing the Democrat candidate as the interim replacement just 56 days before early voting begins, so that person can have the benefits of incumbency, Democrats are outright interfering with a contested election, and it’s not the first time they’ve done something like this,” said Interim Chairman Mike Nelson. Just a few months ago, Democrats made a coordinated effort to try to remove Rep. Rebecca Dow from the ballot despite her being an incumbent running in an uncontested primary election. Earlier this year, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham waited and stalled until just 12 days before a critical legislative session to appoint Rex Wilson to SD-33. This seat had been vacant for months, and she strategically left it that way so Republicans would be disadvantaged to combat Democrats on the policy front. Finally, the Democratic Party of New Mexico blatantly manipulated its selection process for its nominee for lieutenant governor. This denied the will of New Mexico voters and served only the interests of a select few in a shady backroom deal that was anything but transparent. New Mexico Democrats – the so-called party of ‘democracy’ – are becoming more brazen with their intent to interfere in our elections, and the reason is very simple: Democrats are terrified of our momentum and the fact that Republicans have one of the strongest and most experienced slates of candidates we’ve had in years.” ### |
