The governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, recounted that his designation as a Morena candidate in 2021 was due to the direct intervention of then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who ordered the suspension of the candidate's announcement and a personal review of the party's internal polls. During a talk at the International Book Fair of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS), Rocha recalled that in the days leading up to the official announcement of the candidacy, there was 'confusion and pressure' within Morena. According to his account, a group close to the national leadership of Morena warned him that the appointment would not be in his favor. They told me, 'You have to see what is happening, because apparently it is not you who they are going to announce'; and so it was, the announcement was suspended. The head of state explained that former President López Obrador was the one who asked to review the polls before the candidacy was made public. He told me, 'I don't know how you were a senator, but I do know how you were a governor.' According to his version, the polls used by Morena evaluated ten characteristics of the aspirants, including closeness to the people, militancy, territorial work, and social acceptance. 'Only one measured voting intention, and in that category, I had double that of the other aspirant,' he said. When the president saw that, he asked, 'And who is going to vote, the militants or the people?,' Rocha recounted. That's when it was decided that I was the chosen one. The governor acknowledged that at that time, there were internal tensions in Morena over the definition of candidacies in different states, which led to postponing several announcements. 'There was unequal treatment, polls were handled with criteria that were not always the same,' he said, although he avoided mentioning names. Rocha Moya also remembered his political relationship with López Obrador since the late 1990s, when they both coincided in the PRD. 'When I was a candidate for governor in 1998, he was the national president of the PRD and he accompanied me in the campaign,' he recounted. During his speech, the head of state emphasized that his closeness to the president is not recent, but the result of a shared trajectory within the left. 'I was not an improvised candidate, I was from the PSUM, the PRD, and Morena, I have always believed that the state can be transformed from progressive ideas,' he pointed out. The governor shared that this political experience, marked by campaigns with scarce resources and low visibility, led him to value the support he received in 2021. In those times we held rallies with three truckloads of companions, because no one else approached us. Rocha Moya closed his intervention by thanking the support of President López Obrador and ensuring that his government maintains 'a commitment to the principles of the Fourth Transformation.' Andrés Manuel accompanied me in difficult moments and gave me the confidence to lead this project.
