2026 General Election: Maldonado, Barncastle Salopek name priorities for Doña Ana County Commission District 1
Editor’s Note: Candidate Daisy Maldonado previously participated with SNMJC in her capacity with Empowerment Congress by attending collaborative meetings and sharing insight on rural and colonias communities.
Democrat Daisy Maldonado, left, and Republican Samantha Barncastle Salopek are vying for the District 1 Doña Ana County Commission seat. (Photos:" provided by candidates)
From Project Jupiter to government transparency, 2026 Republican and Democratic candidates weigh in
LAS CRUCES – Republican Samantha Barncastle Salopek and Democrat Daisy Maldonado are seeking the District 1 Doña Ana County Commission seat in the Nov. 3, 2026 general election.
In an interview with the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, both candidates highlighted their previous experience and proposals for the district they could represent.
District 1 covers a large region to the west, northwest and southwest of Las Cruces. It includes a number of colonias, including San Miguel, Fairacres, Mesquite, and La Mesa. Picacho Hills is also in the district, now represented by Commissioner Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez.
A look at their backgrounds
Both candidates highlighted their backgrounds and experience.
Barncastle Salopek is a water and natural resources attorney from Las Cruces. She has a law practice that she began in 2014.
“What I do for a living primarily is advocate for financing and infrastructure for rural communities,” she said. “I represent small local government and public, private water systems. I represent farmers, ranchers and local businesses.”
Barncastle Salopek said she’d bring to the commission “a level of expertise that commissioners don’t usually carry in terms of the advocacy and the specific programs and funding mechanisms that are available for the types of critical infrastructure we need like water and wastewater systems that are integrated.”
Maldonado, a community advocate, is currently volunteering as a consultant and an organizer opposing Project Jupiter, a massive AI data center under construction in Santa Teresa.
“That’s been my position since September; data centers have taken over my life,” she said. “This project, Project Jupiter, is such a huge threat to the county. I really dedicate my time to being both an organizer-advocate on the ground, as well as a candidate for county commission.”
Previously, Maldonado worked as director of the Empowerment Congress, now known as Empowered Voices. There, she spearheaded efforts to serve the colonias in Doña Ana County.
“We would do community organizing, civic engagement and really worked with individuals and leaders in those colonias in order to show them the way to get advocacy, while also supporting a plan that they would really want to see,” she said.
Prior to that role, Maldonado said, she was an advocate for sexual-assault prevention and worked at La Piñon. She also worked at the Las Cruces Public Schools and was an adjunct professor at Doña Ana Community College.
She holds a bachelor's in communication studies and government and economics, as well as a masters in economics.
How would they represent the district?
Barncastle Salopek cited water infrastructure and health concerns, while Maldonado addressed infrastructure concerns and Project Jupiter.
Barncastle Salopek said she is not necessarily against Project Jupiter, but she supports openness in the county's oversight of the project. She said transparency is what the community needs in order to support any kind of endeavor, not only the data center. Commissioners themselves should be open, too, she said, while taking issue with the term “transparency.”
“Transparency implies that there’s still some thin veil between me and whoever needs to talk to me,” she said. “Openness implies that we can reach through the doorway and hug each other, right? I will be accessible. I will be present, and then there’s other things we can do.”
Barncastle Salopek said the AI data center approval process lacked such openness.
“For example, Project Jupiter may be the best project on the face of the earth, but none of us would know it because it was done in secret,” she said. “So we’ve got to clean some of that up, and I will do the above-and-beyond, dedicated work that it takes to be open and accessible to everyone in Doña Ana County, not just those in my district.”
Barncastle Salopek, mother of a child with special needs, said she currently sits on the New Mexico Beneficiary Advisory Council, a New Mexico Medicaid organization set up by the New Mexico Health Care Authority. The council examines issues relating to rural healthcare and access.
“As part of that, I ended up working on, through my law practice, basically (offering) legal services to families and primarily parents of special needs children in our local community who can’t get access to healthcare they need.”
She added that in the process this helps families secure a physician in El Paso, Texas or possibly Phoenix, Arizona.
“Through those three medical connections, what I will do with the county commission is open doors for our local community, that they don’t even know exist and work with the county’s ability to budget and spend,” she said.
Barncastle Salopek hopes to bring her expertise on water, natural resources, infrastructure and healthcare to the seat.
Engaging residents
Maldonado said water infrastructure issues and Project Jupiter are key aspects of her campaign. She said that commissioners must serve the constituents in their district and engage with them.
“One thing that’s very unique about Doña Ana County is that there are 37 designated colonias in our county, which means that there’s 37 that most of them are unincorporated,” she said. “Beyond the county commission, they do not have representation. So, the county commissioner really is the first line of advocacy for those constituents, in terms of what are the needs and services needed.”
Maldonado said during a candidate forum on Oct. 8, infrastructure was at the top of the list.
“You know, people are incredibly discontented with the county government and the county commission and how they have responded to their needs,” she said. “It’s certainly disenfranchised, but there’s this disconnect between the county and the county commission and the communities themselves.”
The forum was hosted by the SouthWest Organizing Project and a San Miguel community group.
Maldonado said that at times the issues the constituents bring align with the commission's future endeavors, but sometimes they don't. She hopes to bring a solution, if elected.
“How I’m going to address that, is like what I laid out earlier: (I) will be going into the community, have those conversations, you know, set up monthly meetings where I’m reporting back about what I see the county is doing,” she said. “I even stated last night (at the forum), I said, when the assistant county manager or whoever comes down they’re going to give you reports and I will ask them, ‘did you actually do what they said?’ I will question leadership also: ‘Hey, are you doing what you said, and does it match up?’”
Maldonado said the community is focused on water rights, as is the county. And she expects to take a close look at Project Jupiter.
“Project Jupiter is the issue that sort of opened the door to me considering running for office,” she said. “But it really came around to how the county made the decisions around the Industrial Revenue Bonds in September (2025). Therefore, this solidified the pattern at the county government about them making decisions on behalf of their constituents without consultation and without general information.”
In a 4-1 vote, the county commission last year OK’d $165 billion in Industrial Revenue Bonds to support the construction of Project Jupiter.
Maldonado added that she believes the “ethical way of governing this issue” is by sharing all information with every single community member. She emphasized transparency in decision-making.
“Lastly, I will not sign any NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with any industry, especially if they’re coming to the county commission asking specifically that we pass resolutions or ordinances that would benefit them,” she said. “I think that’s both incredibly inappropriate and unethical. I will never do that. I want to restore the trust between the community and the county.”
Commissioners’ terms start Jan. 1 and last four years.
Where to vote
The District 1 County Commission seat is among a full slate of races on this year’s ballot, including governor, county sheriff, county assessor and state representatives, among others.
Early voting started Oct. 6 at the Doña Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd., Las Cruces. It runs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the end-of-day Oct. 30.
Early voting began Oct. 17 at satellite locations throughout the county, including Doña Ana Community College - Chaparral, 755 Prescott Anthony Drive, Chaparral. At those expanded sites, it runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, until Oct. 31.
On Election Day, Nov. 3, voting runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at 42 polling places throughout the county. For more election info, visit DACElections.com or call 575-647-7428.