The National Action Party (PAN) has now announced its presumptive gubernatorial candidates in six states after unveiling its pick in Querétaro on Sunday.
Gubernatorial elections will be held in 17 of Mexico’s 31 states on June 6, 2027. Voters will also elect 500 federal deputies and thousands of other officials at the state and municipal level on the same day.
As is the case with Morena, Mexico’s ruling party, the PAN is calling its presumptive gubernatorial candidates “state coordinators.”
In the PAN’s case, the presumptive candidates’ full title is “state coordinators for the defense of the homeland, the family and freedom.” They are almost certain to be officially designated as the party’s candidates at a later date.
The six presumptive gubernatorial candidates selected so far by the PAN are listed below in alphabetical order by the states they are seeking to govern. The PAN — currently Mexico’s main opposition party — governs four of Mexico’s 32 federal entities, including three states that will hold gubernatorial elections next year (Aguascalientes, Chihuahua and Querétaro).
The PAN’s presumptive gubernatorial candidates
- BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR (BCS): Francisco Pelayo Covarrubias, a federal deputy (currently on leave) and a former BCS state lawmaker and ex-mayor of Comondú, one of the five municipalities in BCS. The state is currently governed by Morena under the leadership of Governor Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío. It includes the municipality of Los Cabos, one of Mexico’s premier coastal tourist destinations.
- CHIHUAHUA: Marco Antonio Bonilla Mendoza, former mayor of Chihuahua city. Chihuahua is currently governed by the PAN under the leadership of Governor Maru Campos. The PAN’s governance of the northern border state has been in the spotlight this year after it emerged that CIA agents allegedly participated in a drug lab raid there without the authorization or knowledge of the federal government.
- MICHOACÁN: Alfonso Martínez Alcázar, mayor of Morelia, the state capital, and a former state and federal deputy. Michoacán is currently governed by Morena under the leadership of Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla. The state made international headlines almost a year ago when the mayor of Uruapán, Carlos Manzo, was assassinated. The federal government responded to the murder and general insecurity in the state with “Plan Michoacán for Peace and Justice,” a 57-billion-peso initiative.
- TLAXCALA: Miriam Martínez Sánchez, a deputy in the Tlaxcala Congress and wife of the PAN’s leader in the state, Ángelo Gutiérrez Hernández. Tlaxcala, Mexico’s smallest state by area, is currently governed by Morena under the leadership of Governor Lorena Cuéllar Cisneros.
- QUERÉTARO: Felipe Fernando Macías Olvera, mayor of Querétaro city and a former federal deputy. Querétaro is currently governed by the PAN under the leadership of Governor Mauricio Kuri. The Bajío region is Mexico’s main data center hub, attracting billions in investment in recent years.
- ZACATECAS: Miguel Ángel Varela Pinedo, mayor of Zacatecas city and a former federal deputy. Zacatecas is currently governed by Morena under the leadership of Governor David Monreal.
The PAN has not yet named its presumptive gubernatorial candidates in Aguascalientes, Baja California, Campeche, Colima, Guerrero, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa or Sonora. It is possible that the PAN and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will nominate common gubernatorial candidates in some states. The PRI has not yet named any presumptive gubernatorial candidates.
Morena completed the selection of its 17 “state coordinators for the transformation and national sovereignty” last month. The party founded by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is currently in office in 23 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities.
With reports from El Financiero, SDP Noticias, Expansión, Político MX and El Economista
