After primary election winner's death, Las Cruces community organizer picked to fill legislative ballot vacancy

SANTA FE — A Las Cruces community organizer has been selected to fill a ballot vacancy for a southern New Mexico state House seat after the Democratic primary election winner withdrew from the race.

Sarah Silva was selected by a group of Democratic Party insiders as the party’s nominee for the House District 53 seat, replacing retired educator Jon Hill.

Hill defeated incumbent Willie Madrid of Chaparral in the June primary, but then withdrew from the race due to health complications. He died Aug. 16.

Given that backdrop, eight members of the state Democratic Central Committee met last week and voted unanimously for Silva to fill the ballot vacancy. She beat out two other challengers — Madrid and Kasey Peña of Las Cruces — to win election as the party’s general election nominee.

Silva said her past work helping local residents to avoid foreclosure during the COVID-19 pandemic and assisting young adults to apply for legal immigration status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed her to build connections in the district.

“People know the work I do and the dedication I have to the community,” she said in a Monday interview.

But Silva also acknowledged she will have to quickly mobilize her campaign for the general election with Election Day just over two months away. She said she already raised about $10,000 in campaign donations since securing the nomination over the weekend.

“The strategy is to raise a lot of money so we can knock on as many doors as possible,” she said.

While a Democratic Party spokesman called on Democrats to unite behind Silva, the race has sparked fireworks in the House Democratic caucus. In part, that’s because four-term state Rep. Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces, actively supported Hill in the primary election.

That prompted criticism from fellow Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, an Albuquerque Democrat, who said in a letter last week to the Democratic state central committee members tasked with picking a replacement for Hill that Ferrary’s actions amounted to “malfeasance.”

“(Her) actions are corrosive and bring distrust, divisiveness, chaos and disunity to our Democratic Party ranks in the House,” Garcia wrote in his letter, while urging the members to support Madrid’s bid to retain his seat.

House District 53 is a largely rural district that stretches from the outskirts of Las Cruces to New Mexico’s border with Texas.

Madrid defeated an incumbent Republican to win election to the seat in 2018. But he irked some fellow Democrats by voting against a proposed paid family leave bill during this year’s legislative session.

The bill died on the House floor when 11 Democrats sided with Republicans in voting against it. Of those 11 incumbent Democrats, three were defeated in the June primary election — Madrid, Harry Garcia of Grants and Ambrose Castellano of Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Silva is set to face off against Republican Elizabeth Winterrowd of Organ in the November election.

Democrats enter this year’s election cycle with a 45-25 advantage over Republicans in the 70-member House.