Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate from the ruling party, made history as the first female and Jewish president of Mexico. A climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City claimed victory on Sunday, June 2nd, securing 58.3 percent of the vote, more than twice as many as her female opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez. “For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said in a victory speech Monday morning, “I do not arrive alone. We all arrived with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters, and our granddaughters.” 

In a heavily catholic country with a culture of machismo, which means STRONG OR AGGRESSIVE MASCULINE PRIDE, AND misogyny, which means INGRAINED PREJUDICE AGAINST WOMEN, the 61-year-old lifelong leftist devoted her life to working as an expert on climate change. Sheinbaum has a Ph.D in energy engineering and started her first political career as the environment secretary of Mexico City in 2000. Her work with the UN panel of climate scientists brought her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, which differentiated her from her party’s pro-oil energy policy. In 2018, she broke the political glass ceiling as the first female mayor of Mexico City and transformed the city into the digital capital of the hemisphere until she resigned to run for the presidency.

As the political protégée of the outgoing populist president, López Obrador, she is expected to maintain the Morena party’s social policies to alleviate poverty, including a universal pension plan for the elderly and a national care system of childcare facilities. She will continue her predecessor’s security policy to avoid cartel violence rather than confronting it as she promised to prevent youngsters from joining criminal cartels by investing in welfare programs. However, the new president’s campaign promises can be hindered by other challenges including the federal deficit, the debt-hobbled national oil company, and organized crime.

Sheinbaum is set to begin her six-year presidential term on October 1st. In November, she will face political and economic risks posed by the outcome of the US presidential election regarding border crossing migrants.