Contenders are warming up for the race to succeed Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum in the running to become the country’s first woman head of state.
The presidential election is not until July 2024, and officially the campaign has not yet started.
But a war of “likes” is already underway on social media between Sheinbaum — a scientist by training and close ally of Lopez Obrador — and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Both hope to be the presidential candidate of the ruling Morena party, which holds its annual congress this weekend.
“A woman can be an astronaut, a lawyer, a policewoman, deputy governor, and president of the republic,” Sheinbaum said during a recent trip outside the capital to greet supporters.
Party members will decide the Morena candidate in 2023, and opinion polls suggest their pick will be the favorite to govern for six more years.
In the meantime, anyone can ask Ebrard, 62, questions on WhatsApp after he published a contact number, or watch TikTok videos in which he declares himself a fan of K-pop superstars BTS.
People can also watch Sheinbaum, 60, on TikTok playing with a yo-yo or confessing with a laugh to having been the talker of the school classroom, in contrast to her serious adult image.
An opinion poll published in late August by the firm Enkoll found that 35 percent of respondents would favor Sheinbaum to be Morena’s presidential candidate, against 26 percent for Ebrard.
And 82 percent said they would vote for a woman president, which would mark a sea change for a country with a longstanding culture of machismo.
But another survey, released September 6 by Poligrama, showed Sheinbaum and Ebrard almost neck and neck.
