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LAS CRUCES The historic 2014 Republican takeover of the New Mexico House hinged in part on three GOP Election Day breakthroughs in the states southern reaches, a largely rural border region in which personalities can outweigh politics.

The recently elected Republicans say their policy positions paved the way for victory, but a leading political analyst said its likely that other factors, including a prevailing national and state voting mood, also played a role.

Three of the five legislative seats that flipped from Democratic to Republican in Novembers election were contiguous, largely Hispanic and overwhelmingly Democratic districts that stretch across southern New Mexico, from Silver City to Alamogordo, down to Las Cruces and Chaparral.

In the other two seats, Republican challengers Sarah Maestas Barnes and Conrad James ousted well-funded Democratic incumbents in Albuquerque-area races.

The three men who won the southern New Mexico House Districts 36, 39 and 53 say voters of all stripes were united behind one priority the economy and voted for the party that bills itself as business-friendly.

The economy is the major issue, said Rick Little, the Republican who won District 53, which includes part of Alamogordo and extends to Chaparral near the Texas line. They think we can probably do something better with the economy and make things work where people can have jobs.

Longtime New Mexico political analyst Brian Sanderoff said the GOP election wins dont necessarily indicate a trend of southern New Mexico becoming more politically conservative.

Rather, he said, a driving factor in the 2014 election cycle a nonpresidential election year was a bigger-picture electoral phenomenon.

The biggest factor was the overall mood of the state and nation being a conservative one, Sanderoff said.

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Southern Republican wins helped change state House