admin Claudia Sheinbaum, who is Mexico’s presidential winner, will be the first woman president in the last 200 years of the country’s history.
“I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said with a smile, speaking at a downtown hotel shortly after electoral authorities announced a statistical sample showed she held an irreversible lead. “I don’t make it alone. We’ve all made it, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”
“We have demonstrated that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections,” she said.
The president of the National Electoral Institute stated that Sheinbaum had secured between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, based on a statistical sample. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez received between 26.6% and 28.6%, while Jorge Álvarez Máynez garnered between 9.9% and 10.8%. Sheinbaum’s Morena party was also expected to maintain majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor announced that her two competitors had called to concede her victory.
The official preliminary count showed Sheinbaum leading Gálvez by 28 points, with nearly 50% of polling places reporting.
The fact that the two leading candidates were women ensured that Mexico would make history on Sunday. Sheinbaum will also be the first person of Jewish background to lead the predominantly Catholic country.
She will begin her six-year term on October 1. Mexico’s constitution prohibits reelection.
The leftist politician has expressed her belief in the government’s strong role in addressing economic inequality and providing a robust social safety net, akin to the policies of her political mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum’s victory indicates that the political movement initiated by López Obrador will continue beyond his presidency.
As his chosen successor, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum led the campaign from start to finish, despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. This election marked the first time in Mexico’s history that the two main contenders were women.
“Of course, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum with all my respect who ended up the winner by a wide margin,” López Obrador said shortly after the electoral authorities’ announcement. “She is going to be Mexico’s first (woman) president in 200 years.”
If the margin holds, it would come close to López Obrador’s landslide victory in 2018. López Obrador won the presidency after two unsuccessful attempts, securing 53.2% of the votes in a three-way race where the National Action Party received 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party garnered 16.5%.
However, Sheinbaum is unlikely to experience the same level of unwavering devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed.
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