Landslide: Mexico embraces Sheinbaum, ‘candidate of hope’ rides Morena wave of popularity to victory

Climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum held an irreversible lead Sunday in the race that would make her Mexico’s first female president, according to an official quick count. The National Electoral Institute’s president said Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a statistical sample. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote. The governing party candidate campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her political mentor President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His anointed successor, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum led the campaign wire-to-wire despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. This was the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents were women. Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed. Both belong to the governing Morena party. In Mexico City’s main colonial-era main plaza, the Zocalo, Sheinbaum’s lead did not initially draw the kind of cheering, jubilant crowds that greeted López Obrador’s victory in 2018. So as Mexicans make history, electing Mexico’s first-ever female president, under a cloud of violence ravaging the country, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr. William A. Booth, Author, Historian and Lecturer in Latin American History at University College of London (UCL).