The former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, will be the dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate, making it highly likely that Mexico will elect its first female president next year, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
The decision driven by polls of Morena party members means that Sheinbaum will run as the party’s candidate in the June presidential election. Mexico’s constitution bars popular outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from a second six-year term.
Morena national council president, Alfonso Durazo said that Sheinbaum beat former Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, her closest rival by double figures in five party surveys, according to AP.
Sheinbaum, who served as Mexico City’s first Jewish Mayor from 2018 before stepping down in June in order to run for the ruling party leadership, is the president’s close ally and as Morena’s candidate she will enjoy a distinct advantage.
The other party candidates present at the announcement commended Sheinbaum. Ebrard was the only candidate who did not attend, noted AP.
Sheinbaum worked as an environmental engineer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She spent four years as a PhD student in California.
As of 2018, when Sheinbaum took office as mayor of Mexico City, between 40,000 and 50,000 Jews resided in Mexico, about 75% of them in Mexico City. The current Jewish population in Mexico mostly consists of those who have descended from immigrants from the 19th and early 20th centuries.