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Teresa Leger Fernandez wins New Mexico House seat

  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez has won a seat in Congress to succeed allied U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján. The Latina attorney and consultant to indigenous communities defeated Republican engineer Alexis Johnson. Fernandez will become the first woman to represent the 3rd Congressional District that spans northern New Mexico. Democrats rallied around Leger Fernandez in a seven-way primary election that included former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Johnson campaigned as a conservative political outsider in a district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-1. She was cited by police in July for refusing to wear a face mask in public in Santa Fe.