Claudia Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president (2024)

The former Mexico City mayor led with more than 58 percent of the vote, according to the count released by the National Electoral Institute. Her triumph ensures another six years in power for Morena, founded 13 years ago by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a charismatic leader who has emphasized helping the poor.

Sheinbaum, 61, an engineering professor and protégée of López Obrador, appeared likely to surpass even the massive number of votes he received in 2018, defeating her top rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, by a 2-1 margin. Morena and its allies also appeared close to winning a supermajority in Congress, which would allow them to change the constitution.

Gálvez, a pro-business tech entrepreneur with Indigenous origins, called Sheinbaum to concede early Monday.

A beaming Sheinbaum appeared in front of a cheering crowd at a Mexico City hotel. “This is a recognition by the people of Mexico of our national project,” she said. She tried to assure critics she would not use her mandate to concentrate power. “We are democrats, and by conviction, we would never establish an authoritarian or repressive government.”

Her speech was interrupted with chants of “Presidenta! Presidenta!” — the feminine version of a noun that’s always been masculine.

López Obrador, who is constitutionally limited to one term, is one of Latin America’s most popular leaders. But he has been criticized for concentrating power and giving the military a growing role in the economy and public security.

Gálvez, 61, represented a coalition of traditional parties that have struggled to counter the Morena juggernaut.

The election in the United States’ most populous neighbor has important implications. Mexico is the No. 1 U.S. trading partner, and key sectors of the countries’ economies — from auto manufacturing to the cultivation of berries and avocados — are intertwined. Mexico is also a crucial funnel for migrants and drugs such as fentanyl and cocaine bound for the U.S. border.

In her victory speech, Sheinbaum promised to respect the business community and open Mexico to foreign investment. She said the U.S.-Mexico relationship will be based on “mutual respect and quality” and added: “We will always defend Mexicans who are on the other side of the border.”

Gálvez had accused López Obrador of weakening institutions such as the federal electoral agency and of eroding checks and balances.

On Sunday morning, José Carlos Ramírez, 60, a Mexico City lawyer, said he was voting for Gálvez. “We have to defend democracy,” he said. “I don’t want an authoritarian government.”

Sheinbaum promised to expand the social programs created by López Obrador. She pledged to maintain the North American free-trade treaty when it comes up for renegotiation in 2026 but said the economic changes of recent decades have created “starvation wages.”

Rogelio Librado Galicia, 45, a Mexico City engineer, voted for Sheinbaum. “I’m not saying this government doesn’t rob,” he said. “They all rob. But they’ve distributed money to the poor, unlike other parties that just steal for themselves.”

Voters on Sunday also chose 500 federal deputies and 128 senators and more than 20,000 officials at the state and local levels. Morena appeared to hold on to the mayor’s office in Mexico City and the five other governors’ offices it had controlled, according to the quick count.

It was long clear that Mexico would elect its first female president in this race. The lone male candidate — Jorge Álvarez Máynez, 38, from the small, center-left Citizens’ Movement party — trailed far behind with 10 percent, the quick count showed.

Women in this traditionally macho country didn’t win the right to vote until 1953, three decades after their American counterparts. But with the adoption of gender quotas and a gender-parity law during Mexico’s transition from a one-party state to democracy, women now hold half of the seats in Congress and nearly one-third of the governorships.

Starting in October, one will occupy the presidency.

“This will have an enormous impact,” predicted the writer Sabina Berman, a prominent feminist. “Boys and girls will now know that girls can become anything they want, depending on their talent, their efforts. And that, in a country as violent and historically machista as Mexico, is an enormous thing.”

While two women headlined the presidential race, the most pressing issue centered on a man — López Obrador. The folksy, silver-haired president shook up Mexico with what he called the Fourth Transformation, a program aimed at helping the lower classes and protecting symbols of national pride such as oil and corn from foreign competition.

López Obrador has tripled the minimum wage, increased benefits for the elderly and vulnerable, and poured money into Mexico’s heavily indebted state oil company. In a country of vast income inequality, he won over ordinary Mexicans with visits to villages and hardscrabble neighborhoods, pressing the flesh and promising public works.

At daily news conferences, he blasted his perceived enemies — old-school politicians, journalists and critics.

The opposition accused López Obrador of demonizing the middle class and the wealthy while re-creating the sort of imperial presidency that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. Of particular concern have been his efforts to diminish the power of institutions that have opposed him, including the judiciary. He has proposed replacing the Supreme Court with judges picked by popular vote. Sheinbaum has embraced the idea.

“What’s at risk with a Morena triumph is our democracy,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst.

Sheinbaum has dismissed such concerns. “Our project is to defend democracy, liberty and the dignity of the people,” she said in a closing rally Wednesday.

Mexico’s next president will play a significant role on issues critical to Washington, such as migration and drug trafficking.

López Obrador became an important ally of presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden in trying to decrease the flow of U.S.-bound migrants. Bilateral efforts on drugs have been rockier; López Obrador has scaled back cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, accusing it of violating Mexico’s sovereignty, and failed to rein in the trafficking of deadly fentanyl to the United States.

Sheinbaum and Gálvez both pledged to maintain good relations with the United States and to prioritize the fight against violent cartels and gangs.

Both candidates spoke of promoting near-shoring, the trend of companies moving production from China and other countries to Mexico to be closer to the U.S. market. But the power grid here is already overwhelmed, and international firms have accused López Obrador of discriminating against them in the generation of energy, particularly renewables.

Voters’ biggest critique of López Obrador has been his failure to halt the expansion of organized crime activity. While homicides have dipped since he took office, official statistics show, crime groups are taking de facto control of more territory and economic activity. They’ve moved beyond drug trafficking to a host of other illegal enterprises, including the extortion of businesses ranging from sprawling cattle ranches to tiny tortilla shops.

The next president will face another challenge: maintaining political stability. López Obrador, a savvy political operator, has kept Morena’s competing factions in check. Sheinbaum doesn’t have the same influence in the party, which was founded as a vehicle for López Obrador’s ambitions.

“Claudia is going to have this problem,” Alejandro Rojas Díaz Durán, a senator who broke recently from Morena, said before the vote Sunday. “She’s not Andrés. She is an efficient administrator, but not a political administrator like Andrés.”

Lorena Ríos in Monterrey, Mexico, and Gabriela Martínez and Isabel Maney in Mexico City contributed to this report.