Mexico's Ruling Party Chooses Female Candidate for 2012 Elections

Having won Mexico’s ruling-party’s February 5 presidential primary, Josefina Vázquez Mota could be on the way to becoming Mexico’s first female president. With 55 percent of the 400,000 votes cast by her party’s faithful—thereby exceeding the 50 percent necessary to avoid a runoff—Vázquez Mota easily beat her competitors for the candidacy of the governing National Action Party (PAN). Ernesto Cordero, the former finance secretary* endorsed by Calderón, finished second with 38 percent of the vote, while Senator Santiago Creel finished third with 6 percent. Though presidential campaigning will not begin until March 30, the PAN is the last of Mexico’s three major parties to choose its candidate, with the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) having selected their candidates in November. As presidential candidate, Vázquez Mota faces challenges due to lagging popular support for Calderón and voter fatigue after 12 years of PAN rule. But with presidential elections not until July 1, Vázquez Mota still has time to prove herself during a campaign.

An economist by trade and former congresswoman, Vázquez Mota entered politics in 2000, serving as Secretary of Social Development under President Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and as Secretary of Education under President Felipe Calderón from 2006 to 2009. Given that she was not the president’s preferred candidate, Vázquez Mota was able to distance herself from Calderón’s legacy and his flagging approval ratings. As some obervers note, the fact that she is a woman could help her candidacy due to perceptions that female leaders are seen as more transparent than their male counterparts. She pledges economic and job growth by battling corruption, reducing government bureaucracy, and opening Mexico’s state-owned oil firm to private investment. She has also focused on anti-poverty measures, promising supporters after her victory: “I will take care of your families like I’ve taken care of my own.” 

As the PAN candidate, Vázquez Mota’s most formidable adversary will be Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI. An ex-governor of the State of Mexico, Mexico’s most populous state, Peña Nieto is famed for his good looks and nationwide recognition. He is seen as the PRI’s best chance to regain the presidency, which it held for seven decades before losing to the PAN in 2000. A recent Consulta Mitofsky poll puts Vázquez Mota almost 20 points behind Peña Nieto and just slightly ahead of PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, better known as AMLO. AMLO suffers from a tainted image due to his refusal to concede the 2006 election, which he lost by less than 1 percent. But Peña Nieto has also suffered recent gaffes, including his inability to name three books that influenced him, failing to name the price of tortillas, and reports that he had two children out of wedlock. Vázquez Mota spoke of the PRI and Peña Nieto in her victory speech, telling supporters they represent “authoritarianism and the worst antidemocratic practices, a return to corruption as a system and impunity as a sentence.” As an editorial in The Christian Science Monitor points out, she may be trailing Peña Nieto in the polls, “but campaigning has yet to fully begin.”

Learn More:

• Read an AS/COA News Analysis on the Mexican election after the PRI and PRD primaries in November.
• Access the website of the National Action Party, and Josefina Vázquez Mota’s website. 
• Infolatam offers profiles of the three candidates who competed in the PAN Primary.
• Website Animal Politico offers perspectives from various prominent Mexican analysts about Vázquez Mota’s candidacy.
• Visit El Universal’s 2012 election page.

Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly identified Ernesto Cordero as the former economy secretary. He held the post of finance secretary.