MEXICO CITY (AP) — Front-running candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado has opened his campaign for the July 1 presidential election in Ciudad Juarez, the border city that launched some of Mexico's key resistance struggles.

Lopez Obrador depicts his third run at the presidency as a historic battle against corruption and entrenched elites, on a par with the resistance to the French invasion of 1862-1867 and the 1910-1917 revolution. Ciudad Juarez served as a base in both.

Ruling party candidate Jose Antonio Meade launched his campaign Sunday in the colonial city of Merida, the capital of a state his Institutional Revolutionary Party hopes to retain, with nine governorships at stake.

Meade is third in the polls. He alluded to Lopez Obrador, saying, "Don't let them take away the future of our children with false promises."