The nation’s largest, and least dense, congressional district is New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. Covering the southernmost two-thirds of what’s already a very large state, the 2nd sprawls over 71,739 square miles of land; according to the 2010 Census, it has only 9.6 people per square mile. It stretches from Albuquerque’s southern suburbs down to Las Cruces near the Texas border. There are mountains and farmland, but much of it is barren wastes, none more barren than White Sands National Monument, shown above.
Two noteworthy things happened (or may not have happened) in the vast expanses of the 2nd during the 1940s. One was the first-ever detonation of a nuclear weapon in 1945, at the Trinity Site, located in the Jornada del Muerto desert near Socorro, close to the state’s geographic center. The other was the Roswell UFO incident in 1947, which is today the main claim to fame for Roswell, the second-largest city in the district.
The title of “largest congressional district” may be a little more controversial than you’d think, though: Alaska could well lay claim to the title, seeing as how the entire state gets one at-large seat in the House. If you accept at-large districts, Montana and South Dakota would also slot in ahead of New Mexico’s 2nd, but Alaska would be the biggest of all, with a land area of 570,641 square miles, and only 1.2 people per square mile. But for the sake of our “Most District” series, we’re focusing on congressional districts that are in states with multiple districts, whose size is the result of the districting process.
Like many districts in the most rural parts of the Mountain West, the 2nd is a Republican-leaning district, though much less so than most places in, say, Utah and Idaho; the 2nd gave 45 percent of its vote to Barack Obama in 2012 and 52 to Mitt Romney. It’s one of only a handful of districts nationwide that has a Hispanic majority (53 percent in 2010, versus 38 percent non-Hispanic white and 5 percent Native American), and yet voted for Romney in 2012 and elect a Republican House member.
That Republican House member is Steve Pearce, the owner of an oil-field services company who represented the 2nd from 2002 until 2008, and again from 2010 until now. Pearce gave up his seat to run for Senate in 2008, then narrowly defeated fellow Republican Rep. Heather Wilson in the GOP primary only to lose by a wide margin (61-39) to Tom Udall in the general election. Democrat Harry Teague picked up the open 2nd in 2008, but Pearce decided to try for his old seat in 2010, and won convincingly, 55-45, aided by that year’s Republican wave. Teague’s two-year term was the only time since 1980 that a Democrat has held the 2nd.
Pearce is very conservative even by Republican standards, and he’s one of the few members of the House Freedom Caucus who's situated in an anywhere-near-competitive district. He’s also had a few minor controversies. Most memorably, his 2013 book Just Fly the Plane, Stupid! (released only months after clumsy comments about women potentially cost Republicans two Senate seats in 2012) contained a memorable passage where he stated, “The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice.” But the book didn’t seem to harm Pearce’s 2014 prospects (he won that race 64-36), and it may take another combination of an open seat and a strong blue wave for the Democrats to get a foot back in the door in the 2nd.
“The Most District” is an ongoing series devoted to highlighting congressional district superlatives around the nation. Click here for all posts in this series.