[4] He worked in various capacities in the federal government, focusing on urban development, between 1996 and 2003, and from 2003 to 2006, he was a town councilor in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

Among the highlights of his tenure in the state congress were the creation of Jalisco's Metropolitan Matters Commission (Spanish: Comisión de Asuntos Metropolitanos) as well as laws reducing public funding for political parties and allowing for the removal of the governor.

[5] He finished in a close second place, four percentage points behind Aristóteles Sandoval of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

His victory marked the first time that neither the National Action Party (PAN) or PRI had won the mayorship of Guadalajara.

While MC was in national coalition with the PAN and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), it ran alone in state races.

[6] Within a week of the election, he announced he was severing all ties with MC, a party of which he claims to never have been an active member, and that he would serve as an independent governor.

[19] This was after four police in Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos arrested, tortured, and killed Giovanni López, 30, for not wearing a face mask on May 4 during the pandemic.

CJNG is said to accuse the governor of breaking an agreement he had with them to control drug trafficking in the state, instead turning it over to the Sinaloa Cartel.