With the votes tallied from the March 24 primary, two local women are now set to go head to head for the open District 4 House seat.

Former state representative and Salem resident Marilinda Garcia handily defeated three other Republican candidates at the ballot box, putting her on the path toward regaining a position in Concord.

Garcia garnered 742 votes, with challengers James Holland, 272, Edward DeClercq, 80, and Donna Mauro, 32, falling short.

The 25-year-old Garcia will now face off against Democrat Sheila Murray, 63, in the April 28 special election. Murray, also a Salem native, ran unopposed in the March 24 primary.

The District 4 House seat opened up after Mark Pearson resigned in January following his re-election in order to take a position with the town of Hudson. The race for the open house seat was the only item voters from Windham and Salem weighed in at the ballots, the primary being the first of three special elections Salem is set to hold this spring.

In a statement released after the polls closed, Garcia called the results a strong message from residents in Windham and Salem to keep taxes low, limit spending and demand both an efficient and accountable government.

“I’ll make sure that we have a voice for fiscal responsibility and transparent government in the State House,” Garcia said. “We need one more person who will put the brakes on the massive tax increases and runaway spending that we see being proposed by an out-of-control legislature up in Concord.”

A part-time college student and music teacher, Garcia opened her campaign last month with higher taxes for tobacco products, the potential for tolls on Interstate 93 and a proposed $10 increase in car registration fees in her sights. Garcia served previously for a single term in the House through 2008.

Murray, a former Salem librarian and supervisor of the checklist, is focusing on increasing services for the elderly, education and has come down in support of expanding gambling at Rockingham Park as a new source of revenue for the state.