U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson joined Greg Cunningham in his campaign for Congress during a last-minute stop in Carlsbad.
The presence of Johnson, the top-ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was a sign of the national significance of the race for New Mexico’s embattled 2nd Congressional District, Cunningham said.
The event was held Friday, Oct. 30, at the Valley Venue in Carlsbad, just four days before the Tuesday, Nov. 3, election. Johnson also appeared with Cunningham Oct. 12 at a fundraising event held at a private residence in Las Cruces and in August at the Rio Bravo Brewery in Albuquerque.
About 50 people were on hand for the Carlsbad event, among them local government leaders and Republican candidates including lieutenant governor nominee David Gallegos and U.S. Senate hopeful Larry Marker.
“We’re on the eve of the election, and there is nowhere I would rather be than right here with Greg Cunningham,” Johnson said. “This district is important; this race is important.”
Cunningham, 60, a former Albuquerque police officer, is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM). Vasquez, 42, is seeking his third term representing the district that covers most of southern New Mexico and also a portion of southern Bernalillo County known as the “South Valley” after the state was redistricted in 2023.
A former Las Cruces city councilor, Vasquez was first elected in 2022, defeating Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell by a razor-thin margin of 1,350 votes – less than 1% of the total vote.
Following a redistricting process led by Democratic state lawmakers and unsuccessfully challenged in court by Republicans, Vasquez defeated Herrell again in 2024. His margin of victory was more than 11,000 votes, about 4% of the votes cast.
But the district frequently changed political parties in the years before Vasquez took office. Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, now director of the federal Bureau of Land Management, held the office from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019.
Democrat Xochitl Torres Small won the 2nd District seat in 2018 and lost it to Herrell two years later.
“CD-2 is one of a handful of districts that can influence the balance in Congress,” Cunningham said. “Carlsbad matters. Southern New Mexico matters. Bringing the speaker here is my way of showing it. They (Carlsbad voters) are going to have a voice. Things are going to change overnight next Tuesday.”
During his speech, Johnson lashed out at Vasquez, arguing he was part of an “extremist, communist, Marxist,” class of Democratic congresspeople unsupportive of law enforcement and New Mexico’s oil and gas industry.
“The incumbent must be sent back home. There’s a rising insurgent left that is consuming the Democratic Party. These people have dangerous ideas,” Johnson said.
He also said Vasquez was supportive of anti-oil and gas policies enacted by the administration of former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. When Biden took office in 2021, the U.S. Department of the Interior halted oil and gas leasing on federal land for more than a year.
Johnson said Republicans in Congress supportive of President Donald Trump’s push to increase domestic fossil fuel production were poised to flip several seats in the House, including New Mexico’s 2nd District.
“We restored American energy dominance. I know that’s important to all you,” Johnson said, referencing Carlsbad’s booming oil and gas industry amid the Permian Basin.
“The Biden and Harris administration declared war on oil and gas. They said they would ban it and did everything they could to try.”
Vasquez campaign spokesperson Patricia Socarras Santiago slammed Cunningham in a statement issued the day of the Carlsbad event, arguing the GOP candidate’s association with Trump loyalist Johnson indicated Cunningham would answer only to the “MAGA machine” if elected.
“MAGA” stands for “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s main slogan during his first campaign for president in 2016. The acronym has since been used to denote Trump’s base of support among conservative Republicans.
“Three visits from MAGA’s top leader in Congress in barely two months tells New Mexicans everything they need to know about who Greg Cunningham would answer to in Congress: Mike Johnson, Donald Trump, and the national MAGA machine – not New Mexicans,” the statement read. “New Mexicans deserve a representative whose No. 1 priority is them, not Donald Trump.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
