Greg Cunningham joins NM-02 hopefuls at Belen voter event tonight
Greg Cunningham and other NM-02 hopefuls used a Belen stop to pitch Valencia County voters in a district that could decide control of one of New Mexico’s most competitive House seats.
Fat Sats Bar & Grill turned into a campaign stop for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District Tuesday night, giving Greg Cunningham and other hopefuls a chance to test their message in Belen, the county’s second-most populated city and a key stop on the I-25 corridor. For Valencia County voters, the setting mattered as much as the speeches: the Belen venue sits just off Exit 190 and markets itself as accessible from Belen, Los Lunas and Albuquerque, putting the race in front of people who live, work and commute through the heart of the county.
Cunningham is seeking the Republican nomination for NM-02 in the June 2 primary and would go on to face Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez in the Nov. 3 general election. His campaign presents him as a Marine, police officer, business owner and lifelong New Mexican, a résumé built to appeal to voters looking for law-and-order credentials and local roots. New Mexico Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Barela has said President Trump endorsed Cunningham, a detail that tied the race to national GOP politics even in a county setting meant to feel local and personal.
The district itself helps explain why candidates are showing up in Belen. Vasquez’s district page describes NM-02 as covering southern New Mexico and parts of Albuquerque, and the seat has been widely viewed as one of the state’s most competitive congressional races. That makes every county stop a chance to localize a national fight, especially in Valencia County, where Belen’s 7,360 residents in the 2020 Census place it behind only Los Lunas in population. A meet-and-greet at a familiar roadside gathering spot gives candidates a way to introduce themselves beyond television ads and party labels, but it also puts pressure on them to show voters how they would speak to the issues that matter here: jobs, travel corridors, public safety and the split between Albuquerque’s orbit and southern New Mexico’s concerns.
For Belen and the rest of Valencia County, the event underscored how the 2026 congressional race is being brought down to street level. The candidates who gained traction in that room were the ones able to connect the Washington contest to the people sitting closest to I-25, not just to the slogans of a battleground district.
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