Far-left Democrat U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury is fundraising off “gerrymandering” while ignoring one glaring fact: her own party used total control of Santa Fe to redraw New Mexico’s congressional map in a way that helped Democrats wipe out Republican representation in the state’s U.S. House delegation.
In a fundraising email sent by “Team Melanie,” Stansbury’s campaign framed the national fight for Congress as an urgent battle against Republican corruption.
“FIRST: The Supreme Court allowed Republicans to gerrymander our rights away,” the email claimed.
“THEN: Donald Trump’s own IRS gave him a $1.8 billion slush fund for his cronies,” it continued.
“NOW: WE HAVE TO STOP THE CORRUPTION AND SAVE THIS COUNTRY,” the campaign wrote in all caps.
The email then asked supporters to help raise thousands of dollars to “fight gerrymandering” and flip control of the U.S. House.
“We need to raise another $6,527 by the end of May to close our budget gap and fight gerrymandering by investing in races that will flip the House,” the campaign wrote, asking for contributions of $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, or more.
But Stansbury’s outrage over gerrymandering is loaded with irony.
New Mexico’s current congressional map was drawn by the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature and signed by Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after the 2020 Census. The new boundaries dramatically reshaped the state’s three congressional districts, especially the southern Second Congressional District, which had long been the state’s most Republican-leaning seat.
Rather than preserving a clear southern New Mexico district, Democrats cracked conservative communities and stretched the district north and west, pulling in more Democrat-friendly areas in an obvious attempt to make the seat more competitive for the left.
The result was exactly what Republicans warned would happen: New Mexico went from having at least one Republican voice in Congress to an all-Democrat U.S. House delegation.
That did not stop Stansbury’s campaign from acting as if gerrymandering is something only Republicans do.
“After gutting the Voting Rights Act and redistricting across the country, every seat is now so important to taking back the House majority,” the email stated. “The corruption Republicans have festered has to end.”
The Voting Rights Act line is especially revealing.
Democrats routinely invoke the Voting Rights Act as if it is a neutral shield for democracy. But in modern redistricting fights, the law has often been used to pressure states into drawing districts with race as a central factor — effectively sorting voters into political districts based partly on skin color or ethnic background.
Conservatives have long argued that this approach is itself discriminatory. Instead of treating voters as individuals with equal rights, race-conscious districting can reduce citizens to racial categories and assume how they will vote based on identity.
That is not equality. That is racial bean-counting dressed up as civil rights.
Stansbury’s campaign did not explain any of that complexity. Instead, it used the Voting Rights Act as a scare line while demanding donations to help Democrats “fight gerrymandering.”
The campaign then made the real goal clear: “make sure Republicans stay OUT of Congress.”
That line may be the most honest part of the entire email.
In New Mexico, Democrats already worked to do exactly that. The state’s congressional map helped Democrats flip the Second Congressional District in 2022, when Gabe Vasquez narrowly defeated Republican Yvette Herrell. Democrats later held the seat again, giving New Mexico a 3-0 Democrat congressional delegation.
So when Stansbury’s campaign warns about “gerrymandering,” conservative New Mexicans may reasonably ask: where was that concern when her own party redrew New Mexico’s map to weaken Republican voters?
Stansbury’s campaign also made a sweeping claim about President Donald Trump, alleging that “Donald Trump’s own IRS gave him a $1.8 billion slush fund for his cronies.”
That line leaves out major context.
The fund in question was the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was announced by the Department of Justice as part of a settlement structure tied to Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Critics have attacked the proposal and raised concerns that it could benefit Trump allies, but Stansbury’s email collapsed a disputed legal fight into a panic-button donor pitch.
That is not the full story.
The fund was not simply “Trump’s own IRS” handing out cash to “cronies.” It was part of a contested legal and administrative matter involving the Justice Department, the IRS lawsuit, and continuing court scrutiny. Reporting has also noted that the administration later represented in court that it was not moving forward with the fund, even as litigation and questions continued.
But context was not the point of Stansbury’s email.
The point was cash.
The campaign’s message was simple: Republicans are corrupt, Republicans are gerrymandering, Trump has a slush fund, and donors must give money immediately.
But New Mexicans have already seen Democrats use the very tactics Stansbury now claims to oppose.
They saw Democrats control the redistricting process. They saw the Legislature ignore pleas from Republicans and rural communities. They saw conservative southern New Mexico cracked apart. And they saw the political result: a congressional map that helped Democrats capture every U.S. House seat in the state.
The courts ultimately allowed New Mexico’s map to stand, but that does not erase the political reality. Democrats designed the map. Democrats benefited from the map. Democrats now control all three congressional seats.
Now Stansbury wants to fundraise by pretending Republicans are the only ones playing politics with district lines. Actually, the redistricting fight happened after Democrat-dominated states like Illinois, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and so many others for years have been gerrymandering for political gain.
For New Mexico conservatives, the hypocrisy is hard to miss.
Democrats in Santa Fe gerrymandered New Mexico’s congressional map. Democrats benefited from it. Democrats now hold every congressional seat in the state.
Then Stansbury blasted out a fundraising email claiming Democrats need money to stop gerrymandering and keep Republicans out of Congress.
New Mexicans have seen this act before.
Vote for Greg Cunningham
her voters cant forget because they never knew. if you tell them, they deny it and turn away. you would have better luck reasoning with a barn yard stump than a democrap.