Claudia Sheinbaum has made history by being elected as Mexico’s first female president, securing a decisive victory in Sunday’s election.
The 61-year-old former Mayor of Mexico City garnered between 58% and 60% of the preliminary vote results, achieving a significant lead of nearly 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.
Sheinbaum will succeed her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on October 1.
She has promised to maintain the “advances” made during López Obrador’s presidency, ensuring continuity in governance.
In her victory speech, Sheinbaum addressed the voters, saying, “I won’t fail you,” as she broke the political glass ceiling to become Mexico’s first female president.
Before her presidential run, Sheinbaum served as the mayor of Mexico City, a role that positioned her as a key political figure and paved the way for her historic win.
Sheinbaum’s background is notable; her Jewish maternal grandparents fled the Nazis, immigrating from Bulgaria to Mexico, while her paternal grandparents were from Lithuania.
Both of her parents were scientists, and she followed in their footsteps by studying physics and earning a doctorate in energy engineering.
Her career included years at a prominent research lab in California, where she studied Mexican energy consumption patterns and became an expert on climate change.
This expertise and her activism led to her appointment as the secretary of the environment for Mexico City under then-Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In 2018, Sheinbaum became the first female mayor of Mexico City, a position she held until 2023, when she resigned to pursue the presidency.
