New Mexico lawmaker’s use of campaign funds for college football game in Ireland draws criticism

New Mexico state Rep. Tanya Mirabal Moya (R-Los Lunas), who is seeking re-election to her third term in the Roundhouse, used campaign funds to purchase airfare, hotel rooms and tickets to a college football game for herself and her husband in Ireland last August, according to campaign filings.

State law says elected officials and candidates can only spend campaign funds on items “reasonably related to the performing the duties of the office held.”

American Bridge 21st century, a national progressive Super Political Action Committee and opposition research organization, first identified the expenditures and sent them to Source NM. Spokesperson Tiffiany Vaughn said the House District 7 race is one of several state legislative races the organization is tracking.

The expenditures also prompted criticism from the campaign of Mirabal Moya’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 general election. Mirabal Moya, a Belen schoolteacher, is running against Democrat Rickie Gonzales for the New Mexico House District 7 race. The district covers part of Valencia County.

Gonzales referred Source NM’s request for comment to his campaign manager Michelle Mares, who told Source NM on Tuesday that she reviewed the expenditures and particularly finds the tickets for Mirabal Moya and her husband to attend the Aer Lingus College Football Classic “very suspicious and unnerving.” 

“I don’t think her husband traveling around on the dime is what the people of our district really want,” she said. 

Neither Mirabal Moya nor her husband Jason Moya, who is also her campaign treasurer, responded to multiple requests for comment from Source NM. 

But Owen Scarpa, a spokesperson for New Mexico House Republicans, defended Mirabal Moya’s roughly $5,300 in expenses as “official legislative business” that was part of the American Irish State Legislators Caucus summit. The annual, multi-day event bills itself as trying to “foster and strengthen the longstanding relationship” between the United States and Ireland.

Mirabal Moya and at least two other Republican lawmakers — state Reps. Mark Murphy and Angelita Mejia, both of Roswell — attended the summit between Aug. 23 and 25, according to a photo Mirabal Moya shared with the Valencia County News Bulletin. Murphy and Mejia did not respond to requests for comment.

An itinerary Scarpa shared with Source NM shows the summit ended with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin between Iowa State and Kansas State. Mirabal Moya spent roughly $600 via Ticketmaster, filings show, for tickets to the game. 

On Wednesday afternoon, following Source NM’s inquiries, Mirabal Moya reimbursed her campaign account for the price of her husband’s ticket of roughly $300, campaign filings show. Scarpa said in an email that Mirabal Moya “made a mistake in how the purchase was reported.”

No other lawmakers used campaign funds to pay for either the airfare, hotel stay or football tickets, according to Source NM’s review of Secretary of State campaign finance records. Scarpa did not respond to requests for comment on which other lawmakers attended and how they paid for their expenses, but he described all parts of the summit as legitimate. Source NM has a pending public records request for more information related to the trip.

“Every part of that trip, from the government meetings to the game, was official legislative business set by the caucus and directly tied to the work Rep. Mirabal Moya has been doing on behalf of New Mexico, not something she tacked on herself,” he said.

Mirabal Moya and other lawmakers have introduced legislation in recent legislative sessions that would create a trade commission strengthening economic ties between Ireland and New Mexico. The bill never made it to committee in the 2026 legislative session.

The Ireland junket does not appear to have been announced in House Republican news releases nor shared after-the-fact on social media, based on a Source NM review. That marks a contrast with other international trade trips state lawmakers have taken, including one to Mexico some House Democrats announced earlier this week. 

In response to Source NM’s inquiry about the whether the expenditures violate state law, Secretary of State Director of Communications, Legislative and Executive Affairs Lindsey Bachman cited the law that dictates how campaign funds can only be spent on official duties including “mail, telephone and travel expenditures to serve constituents,” but also noted that the office has not received any complaints regarding the lawmaker’s Ireland trip.