Sheinbaum Advances Constitutional Bill Barring Dual Nationals From Presidency, Governorships

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who first floated the idea at her August 25 morning press conference ('A Mexican president is Mexican and does not represent another country'), had her top legal adviser Luisa María Alcalde formally present a constitutional bill on August 27 to bar candidates holding dual nationality from running for president, state governorships, or the Mexico City mayoralty. Anyone born Mexican but holding a second nationality would have to renounce it before registering as a candidate. Sheinbaum cited former Tamaulipas governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca — born in Texas and now living in the US — as the loophole the bill targets. The proposal would make Mexico's eligibility rules for its presidency stricter than the US, which has no explicit dual-citizenship bar. It follows a May 2026 constitutional reform empowering Mexico's electoral institute to annul elections found to be influenced by foreign actors, part of a broader Sheinbaum push framed as shielding Mexican sovereignty from Trump-era pressure. Morena senator Cynthia López Castro backed the measure as protection against 'divided loyalties'; PAN leader Damián Zepeda and some legal scholars warned it could be used as a tool of authoritarian consolidation, and former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari publicly criticized the plan.