Kris Houghton (D) Incumbent
Kris Houghton is the Democratic nominee for New Mexico Court of Appeals, Position 1, and is unopposed on the November 2026 general election ballot, per the Secretary of State's certified candidate list. He was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in August 2025, and previously served more than a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, including as chief of the criminal division in Albuquerque and as head of the Justice Department's judicial attaché office in Bogotá, Colombia, per the governor's office. No campaign website or questionnaire response was found as of September 18, 2026.