Mexico has made history by electing its first female president. Claudia Sheinbaum will replace President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, marking a new era in the country’s male-dominated political structure.

Winning against the opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, the Electoral Institute notes that Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60% of the vote. The impressive election, featuring two women candidates in the lead, is a step ahead in Mexico and North America’s history.

“As I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone,” Sheinbaum said, confirming her victory. “We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”

Here’s everything to know about Mexico’s new projected president.

Sheinbaum is a physicist with a Ph.D. in Energy Engineering

Aside from her political aspirations, Sheinbaum is known as “la Doctora” for her academic achievements. She holds an undergraduate degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where her political interests began. Then, she received her graduate degree in energy engineering from the University of California, Berkley. Finally, she returned to UNAM to complete her doctoral studies. In 2006, she joined the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), becoming part of a team that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

She is the first Jewish person to be elected president of Mexico

While Mexico’s population is majorly Catholic, Sheinbaum will be the country’s first Jewish president. According to CNN, her maternal grandparents migrated to Mexico from Europe to escape the Holocaust. She was born in Mexico City in 1962.

In 2015, she became the first female head of the Tlalpan district in Mexico City

The leftist politician served two years as the head of one of the largest districts in Mexico City. Then, in 2017, she was reelected as head of government for the entire city, stepping away in 2023 for her presidential campaign and once more making history as the first woman elected into the position.

While she leans left like López-Obrador, Sheinbaum says they are “different people,” and she is more data-driven, “believes in science”

Although Sheinbaum has worked closely with President López-Obrador, Sheinbaum says she will govern differently from him. While she has her own ideas, she will inherit diverse challenges, including debt, migration, cartel recruitment, and more.

Sheinbaum is a mother and grandmother

In her personal life, Sheinbaum has two children and one grandchild.