Mexican presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum greets supporters at a campaign rally in Mexico City this month.
(Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)
CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM
Front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, a scientist, academic and former mayor of Mexico City, is widely considered López Obrador's chosen successor. She is ahead in the polls by double digits.
Sheinbaum is considered to lack the charisma, oratory skills and political acumen of his mentor. But she boasts a lifetime of political activism, a doctorate in environmental engineering (with four years of study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California) and what she calls a successful candidacy for mayor of Mexico's capital, one of the most populated cities in the world.
López Obrador, who highly values loyalty, clearly considered Sheinbaum the most likely to continue what he calls his “transformation” of Mexican society away from corruption and a wealthy “power mafia,” claims his critics dismiss.
Sheinbaum, granddaughter of emigrants from Bulgaria and Lithuania, would be Mexico's first president of Jewish descent, as well as its first female president.
“Mexico is no longer written with the M for machismo,” she said before being elected Morena candidate, “… but with the M for women”.
Presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez greets supporters at a campaign event in Huixquilucán, Mexico, outside Mexico City, last month.
(Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)
XÓCHITL GÁLVEZ RUIZ
Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz, 61, a high-tech entrepreneur and senator with indigenous roots, heads a bloc of center-right parties united only in their opposition to López Obrador.
Gálvez, who has promised to strengthen checks and balances in government, has run an aggressive campaign. In the initial presidential debate, he attacked Sheinbaum as an “ice queen” and has called the president “sexist.” At the beginning of the campaign, Gálvez told reporters: “It takes a lot of ovaries like the ones I have to face such a powerful man.”
But the prevalence of traditional parties tainted by corruption in his “Strength and Heart for Mexico” coalition has dogged Gálvez. His campaign has had difficulty advancing against Morena's well-oiled political machine.
JORGE ÁLVAREZ MÁYNEZ
Former representative Jorge Álvarez Máynez, of the Citizen Movement party, occupies a distant third place in the presidential elections.
(Fernando Llano/Associated Press)
The congressman from the north-central state of Zacatecas, a historic center of emigration to the United States, emerged from virtual anonymity to make a name for himself as a presidential contender for the center-left Citizen Movement. Álvarez, 38, has had a lively presence in the presidential debates and in the electoral campaign, appealing especially to the youth vote.
Although polls show him in a distant third place in the race, it seems that he has already emerged as a winner: a likely future player in national politics.
