Wilson says momentum has shifted her way

Heather Wilson called losing today’s U.S. Senate Republican preprimary nominating convention by nine points today a “great success,” saying she did better than anyone – including opponent Steve Pearce – expected.

“New Mexico Republicans understand that we must nominate a commonsense conservative who can win in November,” Wilson said in a news release. “That’s why today we proved the pundits and my opponent wrong. We picked up more support than anyone had predicted. The momentum has shifted our way.”

Pearce finished with 54.5 percent of the vote to Wilson’s 45.5 percent.

“We were definitely happy with today’s results,” said Chris Collins, Wilson’s campaign manager. “Our opponent clearly thought he was going to score a huge victory here today, and it turned out to be the other way around.”

Collins was referring to a Pearce campaign news release sent out Feb. 26 with the headline “Pearce on the Verge of a Huge Victory.”

“The convention held on March 15th will shock the establishment in Washington, D.C. and open up new doors of support for Steve Pearce and his campaign for the U.S. Senate,” the Pearce release stated.

Collins said Wilson received strong support from rural counties in the north and south as well as her home county of Bernalillo.

“We’ve built a strong, statewide organization made up of people who are working hard to elect a commonsense conservative to the United States Senate,” he said. “We believe the momentum from our win today will carry us through to the primary election in June.”