Mexico Elects Leftist Claudia Sheinbaum As First Female and First Jewish President
Mexico has a new president, marking two historical firsts as Claudia Sheinbaum’s Sunday election by a landslide will make her the first woman to enter the country’s highest office, as well as the first Jewish person.
Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party is also on track to hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, a possible two-thirds supermajority where reform measures can be passed with no opposition. Thus President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s left-wing party will continue its mandate, and Sheinbaum is his handpicked successor.
The 61-year-old is a former mayor of Mexico City and a climate scientist by training. Her chief opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, also a woman, has called Sheinbaum to concede in addition to Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the small Citizen’s Movement party.
The National Electoral Institute announced that she won around 58–60 percent of votes, according to AFP, which is over 30 percentage points ahead of her main opposition rival, Galvez. One international outlet has observed of the big numbers she put up:
But this is absolutely a landslide victory, much larger than anyone had expected in fact. And it could be in fact the largest percentage of votes that any candidate has had in recent history in Mexico, including Lopez Obrador himself, an extremely popular president.
But it appears Claudia Sheinbaum has even beaten him.
“I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum declared from Mexico city, after landslide election projections were released.
