MEXICO CITY: Claudia Sheinbaum claimed victory in Mexico’s presidential election, becoming the first woman selected for the job by promising to continue the political course set by her populist predecessor despite widespread discontent with persistent cartel violence and disappointing economic performance.
The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor was the favored successor of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But her cool temper offers a sharp contrast in style — and a break with Mexico’s male-dominated political culture.
Sheinbaum said Sunday night that her two competitors had called her and conceded in an election that guaranteed Mexico would make history. The two leading candidates were women, and Sheinbaum is also be the first person from a Jewish background to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country. Her main competitor, Xóchitl Gálvez, meanwhile, had a father who was Indigenous Otomi.
“I do not arrive alone. We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters,” Sheinbaum said with a smile, speaking at a downtown hotel shortly after electoral authorities announced an early count showed she held an irreversible lead.
The 61-year-old Sheinbaum led the campaign wire-to-wire despite a spirited challenge from Gálvez. But Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed.