Mexico: A Green Ecologist Party senator on leave will renounce her US citizenship to run for office in Nayarit

Jasmine Bugarín, a Green Party senator on leave, was born in California and will lead the Fourth Transformation’s project in Nayarit. Morena says she has pledged to give up her U.S. citizenship, even though the single-nationality reform would not take effect until 2028.

Claudia Sheinbaum during a press conferenceAFP.

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Carlos Dominguez

30 de septiembre, 2026

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Morena said that senator-on-leave Jasmine María Bugarín Rodríguez, of Mexico’s Green Party (PVEM), pledged to complete the paperwork to give up her U.S. nationality ahead of the 2027 election in Nayarit.

On Monday, Morena's national leadership endorsed her appointment as state coordinator of the Defense of Transformation in Nayarit, despite the fact that the legislator was born in California and holds dual citizenship. On Tuesday, at a news conference, Ariadna Montiel addressed the nationality issue.

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Born in the United States, registered as Mexican

Bugarín was born on Oct. 27, 1986, at the East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital in California. In September 2013, the National Population Registry registered her as a person "born abroad."

That fact alone does not deprive her of her Mexican citizenship by birth. The Constitution recognizes this status for those born abroad to a Mexican father or mother. The point in dispute is not, therefore, her legal ties to Mexico, but rather the fact that she simultaneously retains U.S. citizenship.

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The commitment amid the "single nationality" reform

The national president of Morena, Ariadna Montiel, reported that Bugarín committed to taking the necessary steps to hold only Mexican nationality.

"She committed to doing whatever additional steps are necessary to complete the entire process to hold only Mexican nationality," Montiel said during Morena's press conference on Tuesday.

For the 2027 election in Nayarit, the "single nationality" reform does not require her to do so. She can run under current law and, at the same time, present herself as someone who renounces U.S. citizenship out of conviction with the movement.

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What the reform says and when it takes effect

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies generally approved the constitutional amendment stipulating that those running for governor, president, or head of government of Mexico City must hold only Mexican nationality. On Tuesday the Senate also approved it, 86 to 42, and sent it to the state legislatures. It is not yet in force.

However, the initiative's transitional provisions state that the new provisions will take effect starting with the 2028 election cycle. Therefore, the single-nationality rule is not an automatic barrier to the 2027 election in Nayarit.

Even so, the ruling bloc chose to announce Bugarín’s pledge to give up her U.S. citizenship, amid public scrutiny and political pressure. Official sources do not show that the renunciation has already been formalized.