District 31’s recent shift toward a competitive race is shaping the final stretch of the contest in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. Republican incumbent Nicole Chavez is defending the seat she won narrowly in 2024, while Democratic challenger Lisa Curtis is seeking to flip a district that has traditionally leaned Republican.
The district covers much of Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights, according to KRQE. Chavez is currently the only Republican representing Albuquerque in the state House. She won the seat in 2024 with 52% of the vote, edging her Democratic challenger by 843 votes, according to the New Mexico Political Report. Other accounts put the margin at 4.6 percentage points. New Mexico In Depth has classified HD31 as one of seven hyper-competitive House districts this cycle, a designation for races decided by fewer than five points in one or both of the last two general elections.
That competitiveness marks a change from the district’s long run under Republican Bill Rehm, who represented HD31 from 2006 to 2024 and won by 9.9 points as recently as 2022. By the end of July, Republicans held a one-point voter-registration edge in the district, while independents made up 29% of registered voters, according to New Mexico In Depth’s analysis. Democrats entered the election cycle with a 42-26 majority in the state House, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Campaign spending reflects the stakes of a close district
Published fundraising figures for the race differ, in part because they cover different periods and categories. KRQE reported that Chavez had raised nearly $300,000 and Curtis almost double that, nearly $600,000. New Mexico In Depth’s figures, drawn from filings since June, put Curtis at nearly $449,000 including in-kind donations, and Chavez at about $247,000 raised since June, with another $106,000 in the bank entering the general election. The figures offer different snapshots, but both campaigns describe the sums as unusual for a state House race.
Chavez told KRQE the spending was excessive for a House seat; Curtis also told the station she did not think a New Mexico House race had spent this much. Curtis received a notable fundraising boost earlier in the cycle: the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that 111 individual lawyers and six law firms helped her raise $261,000 in a month. The newspaper also reported that 16 contributions of $6,200 each, including one from Curtis, accounted for $99,200 between Aug. 14 and Sept. 14.
What the campaign-finance figures establish
The $99,200 figure is a contribution subtotal for the Aug. 14 to Sept. 14 reporting period, not a full fundraising total for the race. The reported campaign totals above cover different periods and categories, so they are not directly comparable snapshots. The figures cited here do not, by themselves, establish total expenditures or independent spending in HD31, or show how the race compares with prior state House contests. The cash-on-hand figure for Chavez is a separate measure from contributions raised.
Curtis's Path to the Ballot Was Not a Straight Line
Curtis, a trial lawyer who specializes in medical-malpractice cases and previously served as an appointed state senator in 2012, did not start this race as the Democratic nominee. She was selected by the Bernalillo County Democratic Central Committee to fill a ballot vacancy after original nominee Ryan Anselm Braid withdrew, the Journal reported. That selection followed a bumpy nomination process: Curtis initially lost a nomination vote to Julie Rochman 24-20 before Rochman withdrew, after which Curtis edged Sylvia Saltzstein 30-26 in a second vote, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Healthcare and the Doctor Shortage Debate
Healthcare policy is another point of contrast, amid the state’s medical-malpractice reform debate. Chavez, who works in healthcare administration, voted for the 2026 medical-malpractice legislation, according to the Journal. The governor’s office said the law was intended to address physician shortages, make healthcare more affordable and improve access to care, in a statement from the Office of the Governor of New Mexico.
Curtis, by contrast, opposed that same malpractice bill, and she has faced attacks alleging she contributed to New Mexico's doctor shortage because of her work as a medical-malpractice attorney — with critics pointing to the bill as something that some say helped drive doctors away from the state. Curtis pushed back on that framing directly. “I support our physicians completely,” she said, per KRQE's reporting, adding that she believes New Mexico's hospitals and health insurance system are the real problems, while many physicians are dedicated and excellent. On the campaign trail, Curtis has said she wants to focus on helping businesses, livable wages, and healthcare access bills.
Chavez Defends Husband's Lobbying Ties to Project Jupiter
Chavez has also been asked about her husband’s work as a lobbyist for Project Jupiter developers Borderplex Digital Assets and Yucca Growth Infrastructure, a data center project that has drawn scrutiny in New Mexico. She told KRQE she should not be criticized simply for being married to a lobbyist and said she supports examining safeguards for water use and the energy grid. The planned campus is in Santa Teresa, not Albuquerque, according to Data Center Dynamics.
Chavez also argued that the project would not affect utilities, while saying she would not automatically support every future data center proposal. The reporting cited here establishes Project Jupiter’s planned location, but does not document its water arrangements, electricity plans or which approvals remain unresolved.
Common Ground on Child Welfare Reform
Despite their sharp disagreements elsewhere, Chavez and Curtis find rare alignment on one issue: reforming New Mexico's Children, Families, Youth Department. Curtis said she wants long-term, expert cabinet secretaries in place who can fix problems at the agency and improve care for vulnerable children. “I want to see long-term expert cabinet secretaries that can fix things like CYFD,” she said.
Chavez, who says she plans to keep focusing on public safety, healthcare access and juvenile justice reform if reelected, has emphasized accountability at the department. In the same KRQE report, she said child safety should take priority over quickly returning children to their families.
With Northeast Heights voters set to decide the race within days, HD31 stands as a test of whether Democrats can finally dislodge Republicans from a seat they've held for most of the past two decades — and just how much money a single New Mexico House district can attract before the polls close.
