The map of governors could be substantially modified as of December 10, following the latest electoral results and also taking into account the elections that remain to be held between now and the end of the year. Thirteen provinces have already elected their new governors, nine others must still do so and two must renew their authorities only in 2025.
Marcelo Orrego's victory in San Juan practically assures Juntos por el Cambio an unprecedented experience until now. The three provinces of Cuyo will be administered by that coalition in the next four years.
Orrego will replace the Peronist Sergio Uñac, who had been governing since 2015, and will mean the end of a cycle of two consecutive decades of Pejotista efforts in that province. National deputy of the PRO, he had the support of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich and won the election with more than 50% of the votes.
In San Luis won less than a month ago Claudio Poggi, also part of JxC, which ended with a historical hegemony of the Rodríguez Saá dynasty in that province. Poggi had been governor from 2011 to 2015, but with the family permission of "Alberto" and "Adolfo". He will now govern with the full support of the coalition.
Mendoza seems to be a matter of judgment, with the radicalism governing since 2015 and the possibility that Alfredo Cornejo returns to power after the mandate of Rodolfo Suárez. The current senator prevailed in the PASO over Luis Petri, Together for Change achieved 42.7% of adhesions and surpassed by more than 20 points Omar de Marchi, leader of the PRO, who was with his own list. Kirchnerism was third, very far away.
At least six provinces for JxC
That third of provinces cambiemitas from now on is added to those already governed by the main national opposition force: Jujuy, City of Buenos Aires and Corrientes, that is, six in total, one more than those that governed in the presidency of Mauricio Macri.
In the first, Carlos Sadir got almost 50% of the votes and secured the succession of Gerardo Morales; in Buenos Aires, the PASO between Jorge Macri and Martín Lousteau postulates a very likely successor to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and in Corrientes Gustavo Valdés has a mandate in force until 2025.
But those six provinces governed by JxC can be more if a series of results are given. In Santa Fe there is PASO in two weeks, with Carolina Losada and Maximiliano Pullaro starring in an internal one from which many intuit the next provincial governor will emerge. Two weeks later, on the 30th, voting will take place in Chubut, where Ignacio Torres aspires to win the governorship from Juan Pablo Luque, the Peronist candidate and mayor of Comodoro Rivadavia.
On August 13 and October 22, simultaneously with the national elections, will be the PASO and generals of Entre Ríos, where Rogelio Frigerio is the outgoing name of Together for Change to fight the governorship to a dolphin of Gustavo Bordet, Adán Bahl, current mayor of Paraná.
Those days will also be voted for governor in Santa Cruz, in the province of Buenos Aires and in Catamarca. In the first two, in Together for Change there are expectations to fight the ruling parties of Alicia Kirchner – who will not go for another term – and Axel Kicillof. In the third, the Kirchnerist Raúl Jalil is shaping up to be re-elected.
The opposition in Chaco could also give a blow, after having prevailed in the PASO, with Leandro Zdero as the winner. Overall, Together for Change took more than six points from Jorge Capitanich's Frente de Todos, which hopes to turn the situation around in the upcoming elections on September 17.
Where Kirchnerism governs and where local forces
The rest of this year's elections were divided between victories of the provincial government and spaces aligned with the now extinct Frente de Todos. This is the case of Formosa, La Rioja, Tucumán, La Pampa and Tierra del Fuego, where the Kirchnerists Gildo Insfrán, Ricardo Quintela, Osvaldo Jaldo, Sergio Ziliotto and Gustavo Melella won. But there were victories of each local PJ, such as that of Martín Llaryora in Córdoba and Gustavo Sáenz in Salta.
Or directly from local parties, such as Río Negro, where Alberto Weretilneck returned to power after four years, and Misiones, where Hugo Passalacqua was confirmed as governor until 2027. In Neuquén, Rolando Figueroa, former MPN, who had the support of the PRO to end a hegemony of more than 60 years of the party that created the Sapag family, won.
In addition, there is another province of strong weight K as Santiago del Estero that, like Corrientes, will re-elect in 2025. Gerardo Zamora, the current governor, has been governing for more than a decade, along with his wife Claudia Ledesma Abdala.
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