Jaime Rodríguez Calderón facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jaime Rodríguez Calderón
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Rodríguez Calderón in 2015
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| Governor of Nuevo León | |
| In office 2 July 2018 – 3 October 2021 |
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| Preceded by | Manuel Florentino González Flores (interim) |
| Succeeded by | Samuel García Sepúlveda |
| In office 4 October 2015 – 31 December 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Florentino González Flores (interim) |
| Mayor of García | |
| In office 1 November 2009 – 31 October 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Guadalupe Alejandra Valadez Arrambide |
| Succeeded by | Jesus Hernández Martínez |
| Member of the Congress of Nuevo León from the 10th district |
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| In office 1 November 1997 – 31 October 2000 |
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| Succeeded by | Armando Ramírez Anguiano |
| Member of the Congress of the Union from Nuevo León's 5th district |
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| In office 1 November 1991 – 31 October 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Eleazar Bazaldúa Bazaldúa |
| Succeeded by | Jesús Siller Rojas |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón
28 December 1957 Ejido Pablillo, Nuevo León, Mexico |
| Political party | Independent (2014–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
Institutional Revolutionary Party (1980–2014) |
| Spouses |
Adalina Dávalos Martínez
(m. 2006) |
| Children | 6 |
| Education | Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (BS) |
Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón (born 28 December 1957) is a Mexican politician. People sometimes call him by his nickname, "El Bronco". He was the Governor of Nuevo León from 2015 to 2021. He also ran for president in the 2018 presidential election.
Rodríguez was born in a small town called Ejido Pablillo, in Galeana, Nuevo León. He studied agricultural engineering at the UANL university. In 1980, he joined a political group called the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served as a federal deputy (like a national representative) from 1991 to 1994. Later, he was a local deputy (a state representative) from 1997 to 2000. He also became the mayor of García, Nuevo León from 2009 to 2012. As mayor, he was known for working hard to make the city safer.
In 2014, Rodríguez left the PRI. He decided to run for governor of Nuevo León as an independent candidate. This means he did not belong to any major political party. In the 2015 election, he won with half of the votes. This made him the first independent candidate to become a governor in Mexico.
In 2017, he took a break from being governor. He wanted to run for president in the 2018 election. He lost the election to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, getting about 5% of the votes.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón was born on 28 December 1957. His hometown was Ejido Pablillo, a small place in Galeana, Nuevo León. He was the fourth of ten children. His parents, Rodulfo Rodríguez and Basilisa Calderón, were farmers.
He went to primary school in Ejido Pablillo. Then he attended secondary and high school in Galeana. He studied at Preparatoria 4, which is part of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL). Rodríguez studied agricultural engineering at UANL and finished his degree in 1982.
While he was at university, he led a student protest. The students were upset about public transportation prices going up. Their protest worked! The governor at the time, Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, created a special discount for students.
Early Political Career
In 1980, Jaime Rodríguez joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). This was a major political party in Mexico. When Jorge Treviño Martínez was the governor of Nuevo León, Rodríguez worked for the state's forestry program. In 1990, he became a leader in the Youth Action division of a farmer's group called the National Peasant Confederation (CNC).
The PRI chose Rodríguez to run for a seat in the Congress of the Union. He represented the 5th district of Nuevo León in the 1991 Mexican legislative election. He won and served as a federal deputy from November 1, 1991, to October 31, 1994.
Later, Rodríguez was elected as a local deputy in the Congress of Nuevo León. He represented the PRI for the state's 10th district. He served from November 1, 1997, to October 31, 2000.
In the 2000 local elections in Nuevo León, he ran for mayor of Guadalupe, Nuevo León. However, he lost to the candidate from the National Action Party.
Mayor of García
Jaime Rodríguez became the mayor of García. During his time as mayor, he worked hard to make the city safer and reduce crime. He also invested in programs for education and community development in García. A documentary called El Bronco sin Miedo (The Bronco Without Fear) was made in 2013. It talked about the challenges he faced as mayor.
2015 Gubernatorial Campaign
Becoming a Candidate
On September 14, 2014, Rodríguez left the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He wanted to run for governor of Nuevo León as an independent candidate. He felt that there was too much corruption in the PRI. He also believed that people in Nuevo León did not trust the big political parties anymore.
Rodríguez officially registered his plan to run on December 3, 2014. To be a candidate, he needed to show that at least 3% of the state's voters supported him. This meant getting about 103,000 signatures. He ended up collecting 334,000 signatures, which was 9.7% of the voters!
Winning the Election
Rodríguez pointed out that independent candidates received much less money for their campaigns. He only got 383,329 pesos for his campaign. In comparison, the candidates from the PRI and PAN parties received 60 million and 50 million pesos. Because of this, Rodríguez started an online platform to raise money.
During the first debate for governor on April 20, a candidate from another party, Raúl Guajardo Cantú, decided to support Rodríguez. On May 21, Fernando Elizondo Barragán, who was also running for governor, also stepped down and supported Rodríguez.
On June 7, 2015, Rodríguez won the election to become Governor of Nuevo León. It was a big victory! He received 48.82% of the votes. He beat the PRI candidate by a lot. This made him the first independent candidate to win a governorship in Mexico.
Governor of Nuevo León (2015–2021)
Jaime Rodríguez became the Governor of Nuevo León on October 4, 2015.
He asked for a six-month break from his job starting January 1, 2018. This was so he could run for president in the 2018 election. The Congress of Nuevo León approved his request. They chose another person to be the temporary governor. After he lost the presidential election, Rodríguez became governor again on July 2.
Improving Infrastructure
Metrorrey
Rodríguez continued building Line 3 of the Metrorrey train system. It was finished in 2019. However, it couldn't be used right away because there were no trains. In December 2019, it was announced that a company would make 26 train cars. The line finally started working in February 2021.
His government also stopped offering free train rides on Sundays. They bought 24 refurbished train cars for Lines 1 and 2. There was a plan to slowly increase the train fare, but this plan was stopped in 2020. The governor said that because they bought cheaper, refurbished trains, they could keep the current fare.
Handling Big Challenges
COVID-19 Pandemic Response
On March 11, 2020, the government of Nuevo León confirmed its first case of COVID-19. On March 17, Rodríguez announced that movie theaters, casinos, party places, and parks would close. He also said that in-person classes for young students would stop. Instead, classes would be shown on Canal 28 Nuevo León, a state TV channel. As more cases appeared, the government stopped public transportation on Sundays. They also reduced its hours on other days.
In March 2020, Rodríguez worked with the governors of Coahuila and Tamaulipas. They formed a group to coordinate their response to COVID-19. The governors agreed to create a "sanitary fence" around their states. They also said that the federal government was not giving enough money to fight the pandemic. In early April 2020, the governors decided to cremate bodies of people who died from COVID-19.
Rodríguez often shared funny pictures (memes) on social media. These memes helped people learn about COVID-19. They encouraged people to wear face masks and get vaccinated.
News Media Coverage
On September 11, 2016, during a live TV show, a reporter was heard saying that the governor should be mentioned as little as possible. This was recorded and shared by a newspaper, getting a lot of attention.
It was said that the previous governor spent a lot of money to make TV news channels show him in a good light. However, Rodríguez promised not to use public money to pay for good media coverage. He said that big TV networks often ignored or spoke negatively about his government. He believed this was because he refused to pay them for positive stories. For example, he said that his government found many stolen cars and stopped a car theft group. But he claimed these successes were not reported by the news channels because he didn't pay them.
2018 Presidential Campaign
Jaime Rodríguez wanted to run for president in 2018 as an independent candidate again. At first, he didn't get enough signatures to be on the ballot. But his lawyer appealed to a special court, which then ordered that he be registered as a candidate.
During a debate in April, Jaime said, "We have to cut off the hands of those who rob. It's that simple." This comment made him a trending topic on Twitter during the debate.
According to early results, Rodríguez Calderón received about 5% of the votes. He accepted that Andrés Manuel López Obrador had won the election soon after the polls closed.
Later, on September 25, 2019, a court decided that Rodríguez Calderón should be penalized. This was because he used 572 state employees to collect signatures for his 2018 presidential campaign. He also received a fine of about $7,800 for using public resources to promote his 2014-2015 campaign for governor.
Personal Life
Jaime Rodríguez Calderón has six children and has been married three times. His first wife was María Eugenia Gutiérrez. They had two children: Zoraida and Jaime Lizenco. His first wife passed away in October 2009. His second wife was Silvia Mireya González. They had a daughter named Jimena. His third marriage was on January 25, 2006, to Adalina Dávalos Martínez. They have three children: Valentina, Victoria, and Emiliano. He also adopted Alejandro, who is his current wife's son from another relationship.
See also
In Spanish: Jaime Rodríguez Calderón para niños
