What Does Claudia Sheinbaum's Victory Mean for Mexico and the United States?

How will Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum change the country and impact the United States?

From the Left: The Washington Post Editorial Board (Lean Left bias) determined the election “​raises a legitimate concern about Mexico’s future: The party that won big on Sunday looks set to use its vast power to dismantle the institutions underpinning Mexican democracy, rebuilding the single-party rule that existed in the seven decades before the country’s democratic turn 24 years ago.” The board questions if Sheinbaum, who comes from the same party as Mexico’s current president, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will continue in his efforts to “hamstring the institutions built to constrain presidential power” or if she will continue the fight for multi-party representation in Mexico. 

From the Right: A writer in the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) characterized Sheinbaum as a “leftist who blames capitalism for the millions of Mexicans who live in poverty” who has “promised an expansion of the welfare state.” Given the current president’s effort to dismantle the autonomous election agency, the writer predicted Mexico will soon become “a single-party authoritarian dictatorship. Leftists will control a country that shares a 1,950-mile border with the United States.” This led the writer to conclude, “The U.S. has been quiescent for too long regarding Mexico. It is time to play hardball with the leaders in Mexico City. If Mexico wants free trade with the U.S., a condition must be its shunning of China and stepping up the efforts against the cartels.”