Mexico's Galvez wins rival party support, clearing way for presidency run

By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Maverick Mexican Senator Xochitl Galvez on Wednesday effectively secured the main opposition candidacy for next year's presidential election after picking up the endorsement of a key party, which dumped its own contender.

Galvez's success moves Mexico a step closer to the prospect of a first woman president, with recent polls suggesting that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's dominant ruling party is leaning towards selecting a female candidate to succeed him.

Galvez is seen by many analysts as best placed to challenge Lopez Obrador's leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA). Her victory came after the head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico's former rulers, said the PRI would back her instead of its own hopeful, Beatriz Paredes.

"This is just beginning," Galvez said on X, formerly Twitter, as the opposition released survey results showing her polling more support than her PRI rival. "Nobody will stop us."

Still, the way in which the PRI abandoned Paredes took the shine off what had appeared to be a imminent win for Galvez endorsed by voters, as the race for the opposition alliance's presidential ticket was due to conclude with a ballot on Sunday.

Surrounded by somber-looking party colleagues, PRI chairman Alejandro Moreno told a news conference that because of the polling results, his party was now fully behind Galvez. Paredes, a senator and onetime leader of the PRI, was notably absent.

Even some allies of Galvez said the PRI's intervention in the race was unlikely to inspire confidence in the process.

"The best way of choosing the candidate is to let the voters decide," said Fernando Belaunzaran, a former federal congressman for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the president's previous outfit, now in the opposition alliance.

ENERGIZED OPPOSITION

A spirited, shrewd communicator with an irreverent sense of humor, Galvez represents the center-right National Action Party (PAN), a longtime rival, now ally, of the centrist PRI. The PRD had previously said it was backing Galvez.

She is widely viewed as the contender who could do most to weaken the iron hold MORENA has on national politics, which has consigned the PRI, PAN and PRD to a string of heavy defeats.

Expressing support for business even as Lopez Obrador has railed against corporate greed, Galvez, 60, boasts an appeal that can cut across class divides. Like the president, she also connects with poorer Mexicans better than many of her peers.

Since entering the race in June, Galvez has energized the opposition. Some supporters have broadcast an AI version of Galvez, a trained computer engineer, to back her. Lopez Obrador has sought to cast her as a tool of corrupt, rich elites.

Renowned for her ebullience and adept at creating publicity, Galvez has crafted her pitch as one of triumph over adversity, describing how she became a successful entrepreneur after growing up in an impoverished family with indigenous roots.

In 2021, Galvez described her political origins as Marxist and Trotskyist, and argues she is less privileged than MORENA's leading presidential contenders, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and a former foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard.

MORENA is due to announce its candidate on Sept. 6 after national polling. Sheinbaum has led recent voter surveys, feeding expectations that she could face off against Galvez.

The president's popularity has been a mainstay of support for MORENA, consistently polling close to or above 60%. Under Mexican law, presidents can only serve a single six-year term.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill)