Rebecca Vigil-Giron plans to stay in the race to replace Heather Wilson in Congress despite failing to qualify for the ballot at Saturday’s Democratic preprimary nominating convention.
“I got into the race approximately five weeks ago. I didn’t expect to get the 20 percent of the delegates,” she said in an e-mail. “But I did communicate with most of them and they were very sorry that they had committed to the other candidates and, had they known that I was entering the race, they would have supported me. But my Democratic delegates are true to their word.”
In anticipation of not reaching the 20-percent threshold at the convention to qualify for the ballot, Vigil-Giron said, her campaign has gathered more than 1,500 signatures of registered Democrats in the First Congressional District. She needs to submit 1,214 by March 25 to stay in the race.
Assuming she is successful in attempting to stay in the race, Vigil-Giron will appear on the ballot below Martin Heinrich, who won 56 percent of the vote at the convention, and Michelle Lujan-Grisham, who finished with 28 percent of the vote. Vigil-Giron said that’s fine, adding that “last position is just as good as first on the ballot.”