# 18th federal electoral district of Veracruz

The 18th federal electoral district of Veracruz (Distrito electoral federal 18 de Veracruz) is one of the 300 electoral districts into which Mexico is divided for elections to the federal Chamber of Deputies and one of 19 such districts in the state of Veracruz.
It elects one deputy to the lower house of Congress for each three-year legislative session by means of the first-past-the-post system. Votes cast in the district also count towards the calculation of proportional representation ("plurinominal") deputies elected from the third region.
The 18th district was created in 1978 and was first contested in the 1979 mid-term election.

## District territory

Veracruz lost a congressional district in the National Electoral Institute's 2022 redistricting plan, which is to be used for the 2024, 2027 and 2030 elections. The reconfigured 18th district covers 25 municipalities in the state's Mountains region:
* Acultzingo, Aquila, Astacinga, Atlahuilco, Camerino Z. Mendoza, Coetzala, Cuichapa, Los Reyes, Magdalena, Maltrata, Mixtla de Altamirano, Naranjal, Nogales, Omealca, Rafael Delgado, San Andrés Tenejapan, Soledad Atzompa, Tehuipango, Tequila, Texhuacan, Tezonapa, Tlaquilpa, Tlilapan, Xoxocotla and Zongolica.
The district's head town (cabecera distrital), where results from individual polling stations are gathered together and tallied, is the city of Zongolica.
With Indigenous and Afrodescendent inhabitants accounting for over 62% of its population, it is classified by the National Electoral Institute (INE) as an indigenous district.

## Previous districting schemes

2017–2022 Between 2017 and 2022, Veracruz was assigned 20 electoral districts. The 18th district comprised 26 municipalities: the same 25 as under the 2022 plan, plus Huiloapan de Cuauhtémoc, which the 2022 scheme assigned to the 15th district. Its head town was the city of Zongolica.
2005–2017 Veracruz's allocation of congressional seats fell to 21 in the 2005 redistricting process. Between 2005 and 2017 the 18th district had its head town at Zongolica and it comprised 24 municipalities in the same region as the later schemes: Acultzingo, Astacinga, Atlahuilco, Camerino Z. Mendoza, Coetzala, Cuichapa, Cuitláhuac, Huiloapan de Cuauhtémoc, Magdalena, Mixtla de Altamirano, Omealca, Rafael Delgado, Los Reyes, San Andrés Tenejapan, Soledad Atzompa, Tehuipango, Tequila, Texhuacan, Tezonapa, Tlaquilpa, Tlilapan, Xoxocotla, Yanga and Zongolica.
1996–2005 Under the 1996 districting plan, which assigned Veracruz 23 districts, the head town was moved to Zongolica.
1978–1996 The districting scheme in force from 1978 to 1996 was the result of the 1977 electoral reforms, which increased the number of single-member seats in the Chamber of Deputies from 196 to 300. Under that plan, Veracruz's seat allocation rose from 15 to 23. The newly created 18th district had its head town at Temapache in the state's northern Huasteca Baja region and it covered the municipalities of Álamo Temapache, Castillo de Teayo and Tihuatlán.

## Deputies returned to Congress

Eighteenth federal electoral district of Veracruz :
| Election | Deputy | Term | Legislature |
| 1979 | Noé Ortega Martínez | 1979–1982 | 51st Congress |
| 1982 | Silverio Alvarado Alvarado | 1982–1985 | 52nd Congress |
| 1985 | Elvira Rebeca Arenas Martínez | 1985–1988 | 53rd Congress |
| 1988 | Francisco Sánchez Rodríguez | 1988–1991 | 54th Congress |
| 1991 | Juan Bustillos Montalvo | 1991–1994 | 55th Congress |
| 1994 | Roberto Álvarez Salgado | 1994–1997 | 56th Congress |
| 1997 | Marcelo Cervantes Huerta | 1997–2000 | 57th Congress |
| 2000 | Edgar Flores Galván | 2000–2003 | 58th Congress |
| 2003 | Mario Zepahua Valencia | 2003–2006 | 59th Congress |
| 2006 | Pedro Montalvo Gómez María Dolores Ortega Tzitzihua | 2006–2009 2009 | 60th Congress |
| 2009 | María Isabel Pérez Santos | 2009–2012 | 61st Congress |
| 2012 | Tomás López Landero | 2012–2015 | 62nd Congress |
| 2015 | Lillián Zepahua García | 2015–2018 | 63rd Congress |
| 2018 | Bonifacio Aguilar Linda [es] | 2018–2021 | 64th Congress |
| 2021 | Itzel Alelí Domínguez Zopiyactle | 2021–2024 | 65th Congress |
| 2024 | Benito Aguas Atlahua Jonathan Puertos Chimalhua | 2024 2024–2027 | 66th Congress |