2022 New Mexico State Auditor election

2022 New Mexico State Auditor election

November 8, 2022

Nominee Joseph Maestas Travis Sanchez Party Democratic Libertarian Popular vote 399,810 245,725 Percentage 61.9% 38.1%

Maestas:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Sanchez:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Tie:      50%      No votes

State Auditor before election Brian Colón Democratic Elected State Auditor Joseph Maestas Democratic

The 2022 New Mexico State Auditor election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the next New Mexico State Auditor. Incumbent Democratic Auditor Brian Colón did not seek re-election, and instead opted to unsuccessfully run for Attorney General of New Mexico.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Joseph Maestas, chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (2021–present) and former mayor of Española (2006–2010)

Eliminated in primary

• Zackary Quintero, state ombudsmen and candidate for Albuquerque City Council in 2019

Results

Results by county

  Maestas

•   50–60%
•   60–70%
•   70–80%
•   80–90%

  Quintero

•   50–60%

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Joseph Maestas	74,701	57.27%
	Democratic	Zackary Quintero	55,732	42.73%
Total votes			130,433	100.0%

Libertarian primary

Vaillancourt received enough write-in votes to advance to the general election as the Libertarian nominee. However, Vaillancourt withdrew and was replaced on the ballot by Travis Sanchez, the Libertarian nominee for New Mexico Lieutenant Governor.

Candidates

Nominee

• Travis Sanchez, territory manager

Withdrawn

• Robert Vaillancourt

Results

Libertarian primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Libertarian	Robert Vaillancourt (write-in)	284	100.0%
Total votes			284	100.0%

General election

Results

2022 New Mexico State Auditor election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Joseph Maestas	399,810	61.93%	+4.37%
	Libertarian	Travis Sanchez	245,725	38.07%	N/A
Total votes			645,535	100.0%
	Democratic hold

Maestas easily won the open seat, garnering close to 62% of the vote and overperforming the rest of the Democrats on the ballot. Maestas also was the only Democrat running statewide that obtained over 60% of the vote. This likely can be attributed to the fact that his opponent was a Libertarian, not a Republican. However, Sanchez's 38% of the vote was one of the strongest third party performances in the entire country in 2022.

By congressional district

Maestas won all 3 congressional districts.

District	Maestas	Sanchez	Representative
1st	63%	37%	Melanie Stansbury
2nd	59%	41%	Yvette Herrell (117th Congress)
			Gabe Vasquez (118th Congress)
3rd	63%	37%	Teresa Leger Fernandez

External links

Official campaign websites

• Joseph Maestas (D) for State Auditor
• Travis Sanchez (L) for State Auditor