Mexico’s small Citizen’s Movement party nominates congressman for president

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s small Citizen’s Movement party on Wednesday nominated a youthful, little-known congressman to run for president in the June 2 election campaign that has been dominated by two women.

The party announced that its candidate will be Rep. Jorge Álvarez Máynez, 38, who takes up the mantle from a Citizen’s Movement candidate who dropped out in December. He will face front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morena party, and opposition coalition candidate Xochitl Gálvez.

Sheinbaum leads and Gálvez takes second place in most polls on the race, practically ensuring that the country will see its first female president in 2024.

While Álvarez Máynez is seen as having little chance of winning, his candidacy could help preserve his party’s access to government funding. In Mexico, parties must win at least 2% of votes in federal elections to preserve their registration; registered parties receive most of their campaign funding from the government.

Short on specific proposals, and dogged by criticism that the Citizen’s Movement is subservient to the ruling Morena party, the party’s campaign has prominently featured the color orange — particularly orange sneakers — and a singing indigenous boy (now young man) named Yuawi López who has appeared in campaign ads.

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Álvarez Máynez appeared in his first campaign video with bright orange sneakers.

The party nominated Álvarez Máynez under the slogan “The Candidate of the New,” claiming he is the only candidate who appeals to the country’s youth.

“What new means is a totally different idea of consistency and legality,” the candidate said in his acceptance speech Wednesday.

In his platform, Álvarez Máynez tried to strike a middle path between Morena’s benefit programs and the conservative opposition’s focus on entrepreneurs, saying there should be room for both.

He also pledged to fight Mexico’s powerful drug cartels — something the current president has avoided — and said “public safety is the theme of the next administration.” He said his efforts would focus on strengthening police and intelligence work.

But even some of the party’s high-profile members have criticized the recent campaigning of the Citizen’s Movement as superficial.

Gov. Enrique Alfaro — one of two governors who belongs to Citizen’s Movement — criticized “those who have used the idea of newness to disguise the absurd, those who have taken us down the blind alley of banality, of non-politics.”

Álvarez Máynez had served late last year as campaign manager for Samuel García, the governor of the northern border state of Nuevo Leon. García had been the candidate for Citizen’s Movement, but dropped out of the race in December after a dispute with the state congress over naming an interim governor to temporarily replace him.

García, who is much better known than Álvarez Máynez, had been polling below 10% in the race.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not immediately comment on the nomination, but the president had openly expressed sympathy for García. The Citizen’s Movement party has been a sometimes ally of the president’s Morena party.

Critics said López Obrador had been encouraging García’s doomed candidacy — as Mexican ruling parties have done frequently in the past — as a way to split the opposition vote.