Voters Choose Candidates in Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico

Voters went to the polls on Tuesday to select their party's candidates in Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico. In Alabama's 1^st District, no Republican candidate received 50 percent of the vote, and Marth Roby and Rick Barber, the top two contenders to challenge Democrat Bobby Bright in November, face a run off in six weeks.  Roby currently serves on the Montgomery City Council.  Barber is a small business owner and Marine Corps Veteran. Only six months after switching parties, Alabama's 2^nd District Republican Incumbent Parker Griffith lost his bid in the primary to Madison City Commissioner Mo Brooks. Alan Nunnelee, a conservative in the Mississippi State Senate, is set to face Blue Dog Democrat Travis Childers in the fight for Mississippi's 1^st District seat.   Although a Democrat currently represents the district, polling has shown it is leaning heavily Republican. And State Representative Steven Palazzo will face Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) in November for the state's 4^th District seat. Jon Barela, a Hispanic small business owner in the state of New Mexico, was chosen as the Republican Party's challenger to incumbent freshman Martin Heinrich in New Mexico's 1^st District.  Barela was among the first of the GOP candidates around the country to receive the "Young Guns" endorsement from the National Republican Congressional Committee. In New Mexico's 2^nd district, former Congressman Steve Pearce (R) will once again face freshman Democrat Harry Teague, but this time as a challenger. The Republican Party overwhelmingly chose Pearce, who served as the district's representative from 2002-2008, as their candidate.