LAS CRUCES -- Campaign officials for Angel Peña, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in CD 2, took immediate action regarding the Secretary of State’s decision to disqualify his candidacy in a letter dated February 12, 2018. Peña’s team spent the day yesterday reviewing the state’s grounds for disqualification, looking at copies of Nominating Petition forms submitted, and consulting with several attorneys and election law experts.

After careful deliberation, the campaign retained legal counsel, who immediately contacted the Secretary of State’s office and the legal counsel for the state of New Mexico. Unable to negotiate a reversal of the decision, the campaign is prepared to file a formal petition in District Court to help resolve this matter as swiftly as possible.

"I have the upmost respect for the Secretary of State's careful attention to detail in running this and other elections across the state,” says Peña, “but our case involves a technicality inherent with many Hispanic names, including County names, and how they sometimes print out on forms. We feel it necessary to pursue this issue not just for the sake of our own campaign, but to more broadly eliminate any barriers to access to ballots for any future candidates whose actual names or county names contain characters that can affect Nominating Petition forms, when printed.”

“We hope this matter can be resolved swiftly,” explains Peña, “so that we can get right back to our important work, meeting with constituents throughout southern New Mexico. It’s in the best interest of New Mexicans to up hold a fair and transparent election that doesn’t discourage any candidate from running or voter from participating. That is what our democracy was founded on and should be about today."

“To all our supporters, thank you for the many calls and the deep concern for our campaign. We promise to keep you updated on this matter and on the state of this race.”