Claudia Sheinbaum made history as Mexico’s first female president with a resounding win. Succeeding her mentor, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose support from the underprivileged helped pave the way for her success.
A climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum secured the presidency with a vote share between 58.3% and 60.7%, based on a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority, poised to be the highest in Mexico’s democratic history.
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez conceded defeat after preliminary results showed her taking between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote.
“For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum told supporters amid loud cheers of “president, president.” Victory for Sheinbaum marks a significant step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and large Roman Catholic population, which has traditionally promoted more conservative values and roles for women.
“I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico’s smallest state, Tlaxcala. “Before, we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed, and I get to live it,” Montiel added.
According to preliminary results, the ruling MORENA party also won the Mexico City mayorship race, one of the country’s most important posts. Among the new president’s challenges will be tense negotiations with the United States over the large flows of U.S.-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security cooperation over drug trafficking amid the U.S. fentanyl epidemic.
Mexican officials expect these negotiations to be more difficult if Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency in November. Domestically, Sheinbaum will need to address electricity and water shortages and attract manufacturers as part of the nearshoring trend, where companies move supply chains closer to their main markets.
Sheinbaum will also have to tackle the challenges facing Pemex, the state oil giant that has seen production decline for two decades and is drowning in debt. Lopez Obrador doubled the minimum wage, reduced poverty, and oversaw a strengthening peso and low levels of unemployment, making him incredibly popular. Sheinbaum has promised to expand welfare programs, but it will not be easy with Mexico on track for a large deficit this year and sluggish GDP growth of just 1.5% expected by the central bank in 2025.
In her victory speech, Sheinbaum thanked Lopez Obrador as “a unique person who has transformed our country for the better.”
