If you can’t beat the enemy, join them, or at least imitate them. Under this logic, the PAN – the main opposition force in Mexico – gave up denouncing Morena’s early campaigns and decided to do the same: hold internal processes to designate and unveil their candidates in the 17 states where local governments will be renewed in 2027. Under the figure of “defenders of the homeland, family, and freedom” – which emulates Morena’s “defenders of transformation and national sovereignty” – the party led by Jorge Romero Herrera has defined its candidates in Baja California Sur, Tlaxcala, Chihuahua, and Michoacán.
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With this strategy, the PAN has taken the lead in three states where the ruling party has not yet announced its candidates: Baja California Sur, where it designated federal deputy and former mayor of Comondú, Francisco Pelayo Covarrubias; Tlaxcala, where it chose deputy and former local leader Miriam Martínez Sánchez; and Chihuahua, where the state leadership has already designated the mayor of the capital, Marco Bonilla Mendoza, who has not yet requested leave from his position and is awaiting the official designation from the National Executive Committee.
The same is happening in Michoacán, where on September 9, the PAN State Steering Committee appointed the mayor of Morelia, Alfonso Martínez Alcázar, as “coordinator for the defense of change and family” in the state, anticipating the national leadership. The Michoacán mayor has expressed his intention to be a candidate in 2027, after winning two elections as the candidate of a PAN-PRI-PRD coalition (in 2021 and 2024) and one as an independent candidate.
A month after the PAN formally began appointing its state coordinators, appointments in other states such as Sonora are imminent, where the PAN leadership gathered this Friday at the government report of the mayor of Hermosillo, Antonio Astiazarán, who is emerging as their candidate for governor. On his visit to this state, Jorge Romero said that Astiazarán is the “natural candidate” and confirmed that there are talks with the PRI about a possible alliance to nominate him.
Another PAN member already in early campaign is Miguel Varela, mayor of Zacatecas, who since March received an informal appointment from Jorge Romero as “coordinator to promote an agenda focused on family, freedom, and security.” Varela has also not requested leave, although in his recent government report he already used the slogan “the change has already begun,” which announces his candidacy.
In Querétaro, where the PAN governs and is in first place in electoral preferences according to all polls, the coordination for the defense of the homeland is to be decided among three profiles: Felipe Fernando Macías, mayor of the capital and favorite within the PAN; Senator Agustín Dorantes; and the state Secretary of Social Development Luis Bernardo Nava, who has just stepped down from the position. The PAN will conduct a final poll among these three to define the coordination in the coming weeks. Another PAN-governed state with elections in 2027 is Aguascalientes, where the current governor, Teresa Jiménez, is promoting the candidacy of the capital’s mayor, Leonardo Montañez Castro.
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Baja California, for its part, is divided among four registered aspirants so far and an unexpected new contender: Verónica Ruffo, daughter of former governor Ernesto Ruffo Appel, the country’s first opposition governor and currently in preventive detention due to an investigation against him as the alleged leader of a large-scale fuel theft network. The case’s impact put Verónica Ruffo on the PAN state map.
Alliances and parity, the dilemmas
In most states where elections will be held in 2027, local PAN members are pressuring their national leader, Jorge Romero, to reverse his idea of not making more alliances with the PRI, a stance he announced in October 2025. On the ground, they consider it the only way to be competitive. The pressure is greater in states where the alliance was competitive in the last electoral cycle, 2021, such as Chihuahua, Sonora, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, and Michoacán. Also in states where the PAN lost the strength it once had years ago, like Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Nuevo León.
Another obstacle for the male leaders of the PAN are the parity criteria applied by the INE since 2021. Political parties must nominate female candidates in at least 9 of the 17 states renewing their governorships next year. The PAN, however, is positioning men as candidates in the three states it governs: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, and Querétaro.
Its possible female candidates appear in states where the opposition party has less chance of winning, such as Quintana Roo with Senator Mayuli Martínez, Colima with Senator Mely Romero, Nayarit with Senator Ivideliza Reyes, and Sinaloa with local deputy Roxana Rubio and PRI member Paola Gárate. In Campeche, the PAN lost its best prospect years ago, Mayor Pablo Gutiérez Lázarus, who was recently unveiled as a Morena candidate. Meanwhile, in Guerrero and Nuevo León, all signs point to PAN members joining the candidates nominated by the PRI: in Guerrero, Manuel Añorve, and in Nuevo León, Adrián de la Garza, the current mayor of Monterrey who competes strongly with possible candidates from Movimiento Ciudadano.
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