U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Some of the first early votes to be released this evening come from Luna County, where U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., appears to be showing some surprising strength against Republican challenger Steve Pearce.
While GOP candidates for governor and all other statewide races having significant leads over their Democratic opponents, Teague isn’t too far behind Pearce.
In the early vote (which doesn’t count absentee ballots) Pearce leads 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent.
That’s even though Republican Susana Martinez leads Democrat Diane Denish 60 percent to 39 percent there in the governor’s race. And even the Republican treasurer and auditor candidates have 54 percent in Luna County’s early vote.
Teague is drawing some percentage of votes from people who appear to have otherwise voted primarily for Republicans. Interesting.