Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female and Jewish president, secured a landslide victory on Sunday, defeating her opponent Xochitl Galvez.
Sheinbaum inherits the project of her mentor and outgoing leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose popularity among the less privileged contributed significantly to her victory.
The Former mayor of Mexico City, a climate scientist, Sheinbaum, clinched the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority. This is set to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico’s democratic history.
The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds supermajority in both houses of Congress, which would allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to the range of results given by the electoral authority.
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez conceded defeat after preliminary results showed her taking between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote.