Jorge Álvarez Máynez has won even though he lost the election. The first presidential bid of Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), an emergency substitute in the presidential race of the governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, obtained 10% of the votes this Sunday, according to the average of the quick count of the National Electoral Institute (INE). . He thus doubled the five points that the polls attributed to him at the start of the campaign and with more than 6 million votes he added 2.5 million to those obtained by his party in 2021. And most importantly, he far exceeded the 3% that It is required to refloat the shaky national registration of Dante Delgado’s party. Máynez did not manage to turn the score around as he predicted in February during his formal registration with the INE, but he did keep the orange party on the map and guaranteed its financing with public money. Delgado called him this Sunday “a new leader” and placed him in advance as a political promise. Máynez played as the piece that divided the opposition vote, despite pleas for him to decline in favor of Xóchitl Gálvez.
Election day did not start in the best way. “You don’t even live here! “You don’t live in the Condesa!” A woman launched against Máynez, who was looking for the line at the polling station to cast her vote. Before voting, she dedicated the first minutes of the day to her son, consistent with her maxim of putting her family as a priority. Number 67 Juan Escutia Street in the Condesa neighborhood, an exclusive neighborhood in Mexico City, was the scene of the embarrassing moment. “Let him go, he doesn’t live here,” other people, annoyed by the pushing and shoving of journalists who were looking for a photo or a statement from the candidate, were heard replying.
In the midst of the vortex of voters, reporters, cameras and microphones, Sara Aguilar, the candidate’s partner, made her way through the crowd. “Would you please let her in?” she heard herself. With Constanza—an eight-month-old baby in his arms—he stood in front of the woman who was rebuking him to calm things down and he succeeded.
Six o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday marked the end of election day in Mexico. The hours that followed stretched abnormally long in Máynez’s war room waiting for him to acknowledge his defeat. It didn’t happen. As the quick count progressed, the trends were confirmed, the third place that he always occupied in the contest. Máynez spoke after midnight after congratulating Claudia Sheinbaum on her victory. The candidate came out to applause from his team, accompanied by Delgado and his campaign coordinator, Laura Ballesteros. He thanked the youth, to whom he has dedicated the campaign. “[Gracias] to the young people of this country for having changed the presidential election, for having allowed us to be here, for having allowed us to have more than 6 million votes in the presidential election, more votes than the PRI of course has,” he proclaimed.
The impact on networks of the song Máynez, Máynez, Máynez, Presidente Máynez, undoubtedly the most catchy of the election, was not enough for the candidate to achieve second place. Nor to maintain the party’s electoral districts in Jalisco and Nuevo León. Although it will have some seats, they are the same, they may even be fewer than this Legislature. Morena is on her way to taking the entire car; so she will hardly have to negotiate in Congress. According to preliminary data, Movimiento Ciudadano will add between 23 and 32 federal deputies (today it has 28) and between 4 and 8 senators, less than the 10 it has now.
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