“We will have to raise our hand,” Clouthier said. She acknowledged uncertainty regarding whether Morena will select a female candidate for the state, noting that the party did so for the 2021 election. That decision followed a December 2020 ruling by the Federal Electoral Tribunal, which mandated that political parties nominate women candidates for governor in at least seven of the 15 states holding elections that year. In 2027, gubernatorial elections are scheduled for 17 states on June 6, concurrent with federal legislative elections that will renew the lower house of Congress.
The announcement places Clouthier in a challenging electoral landscape. Nuevo León is a state where Morena, founded by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has never held executive power. The state has also never elected a female governor. Currently, Samuel García, a member of the Citizens’ Movement (MC) party, serves as governor. He is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term. In the 2021 election, García secured a decisive victory, defeating the second-place candidate by nearly nine points. By contrast, Morena’s 2021 candidate, Clara Luz Flores Carrales, placed fourth with just over 14% of the vote. Clouthier would need to significantly outperform this result to become the state’s first female governor.
A likely opponent in the 2027 race is Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, son of the 1994 presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. Colosio Riojas, an MC senator and former mayor of Monterrey, stated in February that he intends to seek a gubernatorial nomination next year. However, he has not yet decided whether to run in Nuevo León or his birth state, Sonora. “It’s certain that I will go for one of the two, but the decision depends on many factors,” he said in a radio interview.
Clouthier served as Mexico’s economy minister from early 2021 to late 2022 under the López Obrador administration. During her tenure, she initiated the “Headed Toward an Industrial Policy” program, a framework that has influenced subsequent economic proposals, including the “Shared Prosperity” project. In recent discussions on Mexico’s economic future, Clouthier highlighted the importance of strengthening upper secondary education, digital innovation, and energy sovereignty. She emphasized the role of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the export market, noting that her ministry worked to link women-led SMEs to international trade opportunities in countries such as Canada, Spain, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates.
She also addressed the challenges facing industrial development, citing water stress and energy access in the southeast as critical hurdles. Clouthier pointed to projects involving natural gas infrastructure in Oaxaca as crucial for attracting businesses and enabling regional development. Her economic portfolio includes a focus on the agro-industrial, semiconductor, medical device, electronics, and automotive sectors. As Morena maintains a majority in both houses of federal Congress and governs 23 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities, the outcome of the Nuevo León race will be a significant indicator of the party’s ability to expand its reach beyond its traditional strongholds.
