Maldonado wins Doña Ana County Commission District 1 seat

Democrat Daisy Maldonado won the open Doña Ana County Commission District 1 seat on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican Samantha Barncastle Salopek in a race shaped by the Project Jupiter data center and water policy.

Unofficial returns from the New Mexico secretary of state's office showed Maldonado with 8,245 votes, or 59.8%, compared with 5,542 votes, or 40.2%, for Barncastle Salopek, Organ Mountain News reported. Maldonado led by 2,703 votes, with 13,787 votes reported in the district.

The Doña Ana County Clerk's Office announced shortly before midnight Nov. 3 that fewer than 100 absentee ballots remained to be processed countywide, according to Organ Mountain News. Counting was set to resume at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4. Results remain unofficial pending state certification.

Maldonado will succeed Commissioner Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez, elected in 2022, who did not seek a second term. The winner will serve a four-year term starting Jan. 1, 2027.

District 1 stretches west, northwest and southwest of Las Cruces. It includes colonias such as San Miguel, Fairacres, Mesquite and La Mesa, along with Picacho Hills, Mesilla and downtown Las Cruces, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Many of those communities are unincorporated, making the county commissioner their primary elected advocate.

The candidates

Barncastle Salopek is a Las Cruces water and natural resources attorney who began practicing law in 2014, according to Organ Mountain News. She sits on the New Mexico Beneficiary Advisory Council, a Medicaid organization under the New Mexico Health Care Authority that examines rural health care access. She ran for state Senate District 38 in 2024, losing to Democratic Sen. Carrie Hamblen by 298 votes.

Maldonado is a community advocate and former director of the Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County, now known as Empowered Voices. She holds a master's degree in economics and has volunteered as a consultant and organizer opposing Project Jupiter, a massive AI data center under construction in Santa Teresa.

Maldonado won the June Democratic primary, defeating Angela Garcia by 277 votes with 54% of the vote, according to Organ Mountain News. Barncastle Salopek was unopposed in the Republican primary.

Project Jupiter looms large

The $165 billion industrial revenue bond deal for Project Jupiter has dominated the race. The Doña Ana County Commission approved the bonds in a 4-1 vote in 2025, according to a Searchlight New Mexico timeline published Sept. 18. The data center campus in Santa Teresa, under development for companies including Oracle and OpenAI, has spurred lawsuits, protests and state-level legislative proposals.

Barncastle Salopek said she is not necessarily against Project Jupiter but supports openness in the county's oversight, according to Organ Mountain News. She said the approval process lacked that openness.

Maldonado said she opposes Project Jupiter as it was approved and as it is proceeding. In a candidate questionnaire published by the Sun-News on May 28, Maldonado said the project was approved in three weeks "without independent environmental review, without a health impact assessment, and without meaningful community participation."

Maldonado said she supports a moratorium on new data center approvals in Doña Ana County until independent water impact assessments are completed.

Water and accountability

Both candidates named water infrastructure as a top concern. Barncastle Salopek cited water infrastructure and health concerns as priorities, while Maldonado said water rights and infrastructure were key aspects of her campaign, according to Organ Mountain News.

At an Aug. 12 listening session at NMSU, residents pressed four Doña Ana County state senators on Project Jupiter's water use, air quality and permitting, KFOX14 reported. The New Mexico Supreme Court lifted a stay on the project's permitting processes on Sept. 17, allowing them to move forward, according to Searchlight New Mexico.