MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party is so battered in the polls that for the first time it's turning to an outsider as its candidate in the July presidential elections.

The party known as the PRI governed Mexico for most of the last century — and for all of the past six years. But sagging polls due to violence, corruption, high inflation and weak growth forced it turn to Jose Antonio Meade, a former treasury secretary who's not a party member.

Meade got the support of most of the party's leaders at an event Sunday in which he registered for the party's nomination.

Far from distancing himself from the PRI, Meade has embraced unfashionable old party rituals, like rallies with old-guard union bosses and events with bused-in crowds.