Ndidiamaka Okpareke

According to her campaign website, Okpareke's parents emigrated from Nigeria to the United States after the Biafran war (1967-1970). A local news report says she was born and raised in California's Bay Area and moved to Albuquerque in the late 1990s.[2][5] She has lived in Albuquerque since 1997, attended Sandia High School, and graduated from the University of New Mexico, where NM Political Report reports she studied at the College of Pharmacy.[2][3] She works as a pharmacist and in 2016 founded Olive Tree Compounding Pharmacy, which she owns; Source NM describes her as a compounding pharmacist in Rio Rancho who has run her own compounding pharmacy there for nearly 10 years.[2][3][5]

In July 2025, NM Political Report reported that Okpareke was running against Stansbury, describing the campaign as that of a mother who wants the best for her children and naming entrepreneurship and expanding the number of health care providers, including pharmacists in rural areas, among her priorities. It described her as living in Rio Rancho.[3] She describes herself as a mother of three boys and was the Republican candidate against Rep. Melanie Stansbury in the November 3, 2026 general election.[2][5] During the campaign, according to her campaign website, she ran on affordable health care, the economy, and answering to New Mexicans rather than party leaders.[2] She received 36.4% of the vote to Melanie Stansbury's 63.6%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[1]