ALBUQUERQUE — House Majority PAC has made its first television ad buy of the election cycle in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, according to spending data from AdImpact, months after the group left the district off its initial list of battleground media reservations.

The Waterfront Strategies-placed buy totals $886,000 across two broadcast reservations for the Oct. 27–Nov. 3 window, split between English- and Spanish-language advertising in the Albuquerque and El Paso markets. AdImpact’s tracking shows an initial $586,000 reservation — reallocated from Texas’s 16th Congressional District — followed by an additional $301,000.

House Majority PAC’s April 23 announcement of $272 million in initial 2026 television and digital reservations across 68 media markets did not include Albuquerque or El Paso among the battlegrounds listed. The Albuquerque Journal reported at the time that New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District was not included in House Majority PAC’s initial list of targeted ad buys.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Reilly Richardson cast the buy as evidence Democrats are playing defense to protect Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., against Republican challenger Greg Cunningham.

“DC Democrats are desperately scrambling to bail out vulnerable Gabe Vasquez because they know he has nothing to offer New Mexicans other than broken promises and failure,” Richardson said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Marine Corps veteran, 20-year Albuquerque Police Officer, and Republican candidate Greg Cunningham is surging. This November, voters will choose Cunningham’s commonsense leadership over Vasquez’s far-left extremism.”

NRCC Cites Internal Polling

Richardson pointed to NRCC-commissioned internal polling released May 8, which the committee said showed Vasquez eight points underwater with New Mexico voters, a dead heat between Republicans and Democrats on the generic ballot, and a close race between Cunningham and Vasquez despite limited spending by the challenger at the time.

“Extreme Democrat Gabe Vasquez’s high-tax, anti-police, pro-open border agenda is completely out of line with New Mexicans,” Richardson said in the NRCC’s May release announcing the polling. “This fall, voters will boot Vasquez out of office and elect Marine and former Albuquerque Police Officer Greg Cunningham to fight for them.”

The NRCC’s release marked the first time this cycle the committee had publicly released internal polling in a New Mexico battleground.

NM-02, which President Donald Trump carried in 2024, is considered one of the most competitive House districts in the country heading into the November election.