Claudia Sheinbaum becomes Mexico's first female president

June 3 (UPI) -- Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum easily won Mexico's presidential election, becoming the first woman and Jewish person to become the nation's leader.

"For the first time in 200 years of the republic, there will be a woman president and she will be transformative," she said in a statement Monday on X. "And as I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone. We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters."

Supporters responded with chants of "presidenta, presidenta," the female form of the Spanish word for president, Mexico News Daily reported.

Sheinbaum, 61, of the ruling leftist Morena party, secured 59% of the vote, 31,176,433, while Xóchitl Gálvez, an entrepreneur and former senator on a ticket with a coalition of opposition parties, earned 28% or 14,782,445 , according to Mexico's National Electoral Institute.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez, candidate for the Citizens Movement party, attracted about 10% of the vote at 5,542,530.

Maynez and Galvez called Sheinbaum and conceded.

"Being your candidate has been the greatest honor of my life. I will always be counted on as a warrior who will fight for a country where life, truth and freedom are respected. Let's go and Viva Mexico!" Gálvez posted on Facebook.

"As she herself made it public, I have congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum for becoming the first woman president in the history of Mexico," Maynez said on Facebook.

The National Electoral Institute reported the turnout was 60% for Sunday's election. The nation's population is 127.5 million

Sheinbaum's one six-year term will begin Oct. 1.

"Today is a glorious day because the people of Mexico have freely and democratically decided that Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first female president in 200 years of our republic's independent history," outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a statement.

"Congratulations to all of us who have the fortune of living in these stellar times of pride and transformation."

López Obrador took office in 2018 after the scandal-plagued term of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's Enrique Peña Nieto.

Sheinbaum is an environmental scientist who served as Mexico City's secretary of environment under then-Mexico City Mayor Obrador from 2000 to 2006. She is also a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with which she won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change.

She then became the mayor of Tlalpan with around 700,000 resident before becoming Mexico City's first woman mayor in 2018. Mexico City's population is nearly 9 million, the sixth largest municipality in the world.

As it became more evident that Sheinbaum would emerge victorious, U.S. President Joe Biden offered words of congratulations.

"I look forward to working closely with President-elect Sheinbaum in the spirit of partnership and friendship that reflects the enduring bonds between our two countries," Biden said in statement. "I express our commitment to advancing the values and interests of both our nations to the benefit of our peoples."

He also congratulated "the Mexican people" for conducting a successful democratic election for federal, state and local races throughout the nation.