Mexico votes with corruption, violence, and Trump in mind

Mexico&#039;s presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for the &#039;Juntos haremos historia&#039; party, casts his vote during general elections, in Mexico City, on July 1, 2018.

(Image credit: Ronaldo Schiemidt/Getty Images)

published 1 July 2018

Mexico goes to the polls Sunday to vote for a new president — the office is limited to a single, six-year term, so President Enrique Peña Nieto cannot run again — plus some 18,000 lower offices, including all congressional seats. Advance polling suggests left-wing populist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (also known by his initials, AMLO) holds a strong lead for the presidency.

More broadly, the election is focused on issues of corruption, drug-related violence, and President Trump's immigration policies, with candidates from across the political spectrum slamming Trump's approach. Mexico "will never be the piñata of any foreign government," López Obrador said on the campaign trail.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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