Mexico president’s ruling party ousts once-dominant party in most populous state

By MARÍA VERZA and LISSETTE ROMERO
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The ruling party of Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has won the governorship of the country’s most populous state. The victory in the State of Mexico deals a life-threatening blow to the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party — or PRI — which had governed the state without interruption for nearly a century. With over 99% of precincts counted in a preliminary report, electoral authorities said Monday that Morena’s Delfina Gómez won 52.7% of votes, to 44.3% for the PRI’s Alejandra del Moral. The result is a new low for the PRI, which governed Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years until losing power in 2000 and had ruled the State of Mexico for even longer.