Claudia Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday became the first woman elected president of Mexico. Sheinbaum, a scientist who is a member of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s leftist Morena party, defeated Xóchitl Gálvez of the opposition National Action Party and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the Citizens’ Movement.
She will also be Mexico’s first Jewish president. “Thank you to the people of Mexico,” said Sheinbaum on her X account. “This is your triumph, this June 2 we once again made history.” Mexican voters elected Sheinbaum less than a year after Mexico City hosted an LGBTQ and intersex rights conference that the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute co-sponsored.
The election also took place against the backdrop of rampant cartel violence in Michoacán and other Mexican states. Mexican Congresswoman Salma Luévano, who is transgender, is among those who congratulated Sheinbaum.
Claudia López, the former mayor of the Colombian capital of Bogotá who is a lesbian, in a post to her X account described Sheinbaum’s election as a “cultural and political transformation” for Mexico. “Claudia Sheinbaum has on her shoulders the largest popular mandate in Mexican history and the necessary institutional equilibrium that depends so much on her talent and style of leadership,” said López. “I am sure that her human, professional, scientific training and her feminine empathy will allow her to honor history and her role in it.” The Washington Blade will update this article.
