Fox's Election Ends 71 Years of PRI Rule
An opposition candidate wins the presidency for the first time since the revolution, and Mexico's one-party era closes
Quick facts
- Election date
- 2 July 2000
- Fox's vote share
- 42.52%
- States won (Fox vs. Labastida)
- 20 vs. 11
- Fox inaugurated
- 1 December 2000
What happened
On 2 July 2000, Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), running as part of the Alliance for Change coalition, won Mexico's presidential election with 42.52% of the vote against 36.10% for the PRI's Francisco Labastida and 16.64% for Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the PRD, carrying 20 of Mexico's 32 states to Labastida's 11. Independent Mexican electoral authorities supervised the vote, and both defeated candidates conceded the same evening. It marked the first time an opposition candidate had won the Mexican presidency in 71 years, since the PNR's founding in 1929, ending the longest continuous single-party rule in the world at that time. Fox took office on 1 December 2000, but neither his coalition nor any single party held a majority in either chamber of Congress.
Why it matters
Mexico's ability to end 71 years of single-party rule through a peaceful, internationally credible election, rather than through revolution or coup, the two methods that had ended every previous era of Mexican governance, marked the country's definitive transition to competitive multi-party democracy.
How we know
Official vote totals and the state-by-state breakdown are recorded in a Congressional Research Service report prepared for the U.S. Congress immediately after the election.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service (via EveryCRSReport.com). Mexico's Presidential, Legislative, and Local Elections of July 2, 2000 · General sourceeverycrsreport.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Wilson Center, Mexico Institute. El Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) - Explainer · Unclassified sourcemexicoelections.wilsoncenter.org · Cited as a "website" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineHistory of Mexico34 events · From the Olmec's colossal stone heads to a modern republic, told through the conquest that ended one empire and the revolution that remade the nation twiceView all →