Claudia Sheinbaum, the presumptive presidential candidate, will make history as the first female head of state in Mexico’s 200-year history.
The former mayor of Mexico City and climate scientist claimed on Sunday night that both of her rivals had called her to accept her win.
Sheinbaum smiled as she declared, ‘I will become the first woman president of Mexico,’ at a downtown hotel, just after election officials revealed that a statistical sample indicated she had an unassailable lead.
‘I don’t succeed by myself. Together with our moms, daughters, and grandchildren, as well as the heroes who gave us our country, we have all succeeded.’
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‘We have established that Mexico is a constitutional democracy with peaceful elections,’ she stated.
Sheinbaum received between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, based to the statistical sample, according to the head of the National Electoral Institute. Xóchitl Gálvez, the opposition candidate, received between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote, while Jorge Álvarez Máynez received between 9.9% and 10.8%.
With 42% of polling station tallies counted immediately after Sheinbaum’s victory speech, the preliminary counts, which began extremely slowly, put her ahead of Gálvez by 27 points.
Mexico chose Claudia Sheinbaum
The party’s presidential candidate for office, who looked up to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a mentor, pledged throughout her campaign to continue his six-year political trajectory.
The favorite, Sheinbaum, 61, easily won the presidential election in spite of a strong fight from Gálvez. In Mexico, this was the first time the two principal rivals were ladies.
‘With all due respect, I congratulate Claudia Sheinbaum on her overwhelming victory,’ López Obrador declared shortly after the election officials’ declaration. In two centuries, she will become the first female president of Mexico.
It will resemble his resounding victory in 2018 if the margin stays the same. After two failed attempts, López Obrador emerged victorious in the presidential election, garnering 53.2% of the votes in a field that also included National Action with 22.3% and the Institutional Revolutionary Party with 16.5%.
Gálvez had earlier posted, “The votes are there,” on the social media site X. Keep them from hiding.
A White House readout of the call states that President Joe Biden contacted Sheinbaum on Monday to congratulate her ‘on her historic electoral victory.’ The The two leaders underlined their dedication to the solid alliance between the United States and Mexico, and the president also applauded the accomplishments of Mexico’s election process.
Her grandmother is a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania and Bulgaria, and Sheinbaum is a ‘dedicated leftist known for keeping a cool head in times of crisis,’ according to AFP.
However, Pamela Starr, an academic at the University of Southern California, is quoted by AFP as stating that Sheinbaum is ‘not a populist,’ in contrast to López Obrador.
According to Starr, ‘she is much more of a mainstream leftist politician’ and perhaps “less ideological” than the president-elect.
It is thought that Sheinbaum is not likely to experience the same level of unwavering loyalty as López Obrador has. Each is a member of the Morena party in power. The Zocalo, Mexico City’s largest plaza built during the colonial era, wasn’t first met with the same enthusiastic, exuberant crowds that welcomed López Obrador’s triumph in 2018.
A 28-year-old cook named Fernando Fernández joined the comparatively tiny group of people cheering for Sheinbaum to win, but even he conceded there were issues.
‘You vote for Claudia out of conviction, for AMLO,’ Fernández declared, addressing López Obrador by his initials as the majority of Mexicans often do. He does, however, harbor the greatest hope that Sheinbaum will be able to ‘improve what AMLO couldn’t do, the price of gasoline, crime, and drug trafficking, which he didn’t combat even though he had the power.’
Another person in the audience, company administrator Itxel Robledo, 28, expressed optimism that Sheinbaum will take the initiative where López Obrador failed. ‘What Claudia possesses must do is assign experts to each field.’
Yoselin Ramírez, 29, stated she voted for Sheinbaum but divided her vote for other positions because she didn’t want anyone to have a sizable majority in another part of the city.
Without going into further detail, she stated, ‘I don’t want everything to be occupied by the same party, so there can be a little more equality.’
The primary rival, former senator and tech entrepreneur Gálvez, attempted to capitalize on Mexicans’ security apprehensions by pledging to combat organized crime with greater vigor.
There were around 100 million voters registered, although voter turnout seemed to be a little lower than in previous elections. In addition, voters selected candidates for both positions and elected governors in nine of the 32 states in the nation. chambers of Congress, thousands of mayorships, and numerous local positions in the largest and most violent elections the country has ever witnessed.
Many viewed the elections as a referendum on López Obrador, the populist who has increased social programs but has failed to lower Mexican cartel violence. Currently, his Morena party has a simple majority of seats in both houses of Congress as well as 23 of the 32 governorships. According to the Mexican the founding documents, an incumbent president cannot be reelected.
Sheinbaum pledged to uphold all of López Obrador’s initiatives, such as a program that compensates young people for taking up apprenticeships and a universal pension for the elderly.
Gálvez, whose father was an Indigenous Otomi, climbed from her humble beginnings as a street vendor of sweets in her impoverished neighborhood. tech companies. She resigned the Senate last year to concentrate her ire on López Obrador’s choice to forego battling the drug gangs through his “hugs not bullets” program. She is a candidate running alongside a coalition of significant opposition parties. She promised to pursue offenders with greater vigor.
The main areas of disagreement
Voters’ primary concerns were Mexico’s mediocre economic performance and the ongoing bloodshed committed by cartels.
An office worker in Mexico City named Julio García declared that he was supporting the opposition in the city’s central San Rafael district. ‘I’ve been robbed twice at gunpoint by them. The 34-year-old stated, ‘You have to change leadership and direction.’ ‘Continuing the same way, we’re going to become Venezuela.’
In the San Andres neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City In Totoltepec, electoral authorities walked by housewife Stephania Navarrete, 34, as she observed a large group of election observers and cameramen assembling at the location where Sheinbaum was scheduled to cast her ballot.
Navarrete declared that she did not trust López Obrador or his party, but she still intended to vote for Sheinbaum.
For me as a Mexican woman, having a female president will be similar to the past, when you were restricted to a certain career only by virtue of your gender. Not any longer.’
‘Although she acknowledged the value of Sheinbaum’s mentor’s social activities, she made it clear that the increase in cartel violence over the past five years was her primary concern in this election.’
‘That is something that they have to focus more on,’ she stated. For me, the main obstacle is security. Although they claimed to lower crime, the number of crimes actually increased significantly. Though I don’t hold the president solely responsible, he does have some responsibility.’
Angelina Jiménez, 76, a homemaker in Mexico City’s largest neighborhood of Iztapalapa, said she went to vote ‘to end this inept government that says we’re doing well and (still) there are so many dead.’
She added that she was really concerned about the violence in Mexico and that’s why she intended to vote for Gálvez because of her pledge to take on the cartels. It is untrue that López Obrador ‘says we’re better.’ We’re not better.
According to López Obrador, the high number of killings throughout history has dropped by 20% since he took office in December 2018. However, that’s mostly an assertion supported by a dubious, interpretation of the numbers. In the last six years, there seems to have been just a 4% decrease in the actual homicide rate.
Election parallels between the US and Mexico
Deep divides exist in the United States, as demonstrated by the impending rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. Similarly, Mexico’s election on Sunday demonstrated the extreme polarization of public opinion regarding the country’s future, particularly with regard to security and economic growth.
In addition to the struggle for congressional control, the contest for Mexico City mayor—a position that is currently regarded as crucial as a governorship—is equally significant. Sheinbaum is only the most recent mayor of Mexico City to enter the presidential race, along with López Obrador.
governorships in states with a lot of people are attracting interest as well, including Jalisco and Veracruz.
