Mexico election favorite could make history
Mexico is holding its biggest election yet in June when the nation selects a new president who is likely to make history.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reached his term limit, and when the two leading political parties put forward women as their candidates, it became all but certain the winner of the June 2 election will be the country’s first female leader.
Former Mexico City mayor and ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, also known as Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, is the favorite to win the race, and as Reuters reported, she shows an increasing lead in the polls.
Not only would she be the first woman president of Mexico, she would also be the first president with a Jewish background.
Sheinbaum, 61, is part of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party. She was the mayor of Mexico City from December 2018 until stepping down to pursue the presidential candidacy.
Her four Jewish grandparents emigrated from Lithuania and Bulgaria, according to the Associated Press. Sheinbaum calls herself a woman of faith who does not adhere to any religion. Mexico’s population is 78% Roman Catholic, according to 2020 census data.
She is tailed at a distance in the polls by candidates Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez. If elected, she would serve a six-year term until 2030.
Sheinbaum is a scientist specializing in energy with a Ph.D. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has served on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as part of a team that won a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
She recently unveiled an ambitious plan to pledge $13.6 billion in wind and solar power generation projects, according to Reuters. It would be a break from the current president’s policies, which invested in the state oil company
Pemex, though Sheinbaum generally wants to continue with López Obrador’s legacy if elected.
“We are working on the national energy plan not only through 2030, but to 2050,” Sheinbaum said, according to Reuters.
Mexico’s next president will have to contend with the elections happening next door as the U.S. is likely headed for a rematch between former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden.
Bloomberg reported Sheinbaum says that, if elected, she would maintain a “good relationship” with the next U.S. president, given the close economic ties.
Mexican voters’ choice could also play a role in some key aspects of the U.S. elections. Immigration is a big issue for many U.S. voters in the 2024 presidential election.
Both Biden and Trump have been president while López Obrador has been in office, which offers insight into how the relationship might continue if Morena remains the governing party.
The Associated Press called López Obrador’s relationship with Trump “strangely warm,” considering Trump’s rhetoric about building a wall on their shared border.