Jaime Rodríguez Calderón

Party Affiliation: Independent

Born: Nuevo Leon, 1957

Jaime “El Bronco” Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón was born in Galeana, Nuevo Leon. The son of farmers, El Bronco was a student at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon where he led a movement to avoid an increment in public transport tariffs. He graduated in 1982 as an Agricultural Engineer and started working with Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, then Governor of Nuevo Leon.

El Bronco joined the PRI party in 1980 and after working with Martínez in Nuevo Leon, he acted as Minister of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources in Mexico City. He was a Federal Representative from 1991 to 1994 and a Local Representative in Nuevo Leon from 1997 to 2000. He ran for the Municipal Presidency of the Guadalupe locality in Nuevo Leon in 2000 but lost to PAN’s Pedro Garza Treviño. Before leaving PRI in 2014, El Bronco ran one last time for another Municipal Presidency in García, Nuevo Leon, this time winning with 46.2 percent of the votes.

El Bronco left PRI to run as an independent candidate for Governor of Nuevo Leon. After gathering the necessary signatures to enter the ballot as an independent candidate, El Bronco won the election with 48.8 percent of the votes. He was the first independent to win a state government position in Mexico. This time, too, El Bronco had to gather the necessary signatures to run as an independent. The National Electoral Institute, however, questioned the validity of the signatures he presented and banned him from the election. El Bronco appealed to the Federal Electoral Tribune, which ruled in his favor. He is fifth in polling among the five presidential candidates.