1833 Mexican elections

President Andrew Jackson.

The 1833 Mexican elections took place in August 1833 for the purpose of choosing the Congress of the United States of Mexico. The election pitted the ruling Continentalist Party under President Andrew Jackson of Jefferson against the opposition Liberty Party led by Senator Miguel Huddleston of Durango.

Jackson was running for his third term as President of the U.S.M., the nation he founded thirteen years before. Huddleston, his opponent, had been a soldier in Jackson's army who took part in the capture of Mexico City in 1817. Huddleston had become enamored with Mexican culture, and also with Consuela Venegas, the daughter of a deposed Federalist official. In 1819 Huddleston converted to Catholicism, changed his name from Michael to Miguel, and married Venegas. By 1833 Huddelston was nearing the end of his first term in the Senate, and was widely recognized as the most talented politician in the Liberty Party.

Senator Miguel Huddleston.

Initially, the leaders of the Liberty Party supported Senate Minority Leader Arthur Younger of Mexico del Norte as their presidential nominee. However, as redistricting increased the numbers of the party's Mexicano supporters, and Jackson's opposition to industrialization alienated wealthy supporters in Jefferson, it appeared that the Libertarians might win the 1833 elections. At a meeting of the Libertarian caucus in July, Younger announced that he was throwing his support to Huddleston, saying, "I am sixty-six years old, and have amassed that many years' worth of enemies. I would have made the stand to offer the voters an alternative to Jackson, and for no other reason. But now it appears the people of Mexico are ready to overthrow the tyrant, and they need a potential president, and not only a symbol. Therefore, I hereby support Huddleston."

Huddleston was able to overcome last-minute challenges from Douglas Watson of Chiapas and Henry Morris of Jefferson to win the Libertarian presidential nomination. On election day, the Libertarians' high hopes for victory proved to be unfounded. In the Assembly, the Continentalists won 53 seats to the Libertarians' 46, with one seat being won by the United Indian Party candidate. In the Senate, the Continentalists were able to win 18 seats to the Libertarians' 6, the same margin they had enjoyed twelve years before, and Jackson was voted president for a third term. However, Continentalist Senator John Shelby of California admitted later that "Huddleston was defeated by a phantom, not a man. We cast our ballots in '33 for the ghost of '17, not the man who stood before us." It was clear to all concerned that Jackson had won his last election, and that Huddleston had become his logical successor. Huddleston accepted his defeat with good grace, and began laying the groundwork for a second campaign in 1839.