Paloma Valencia, Democratic Center’s 2026 Colombian Presidential Candidate

Written on 12/16/2025
Josep Freixes
The Democratic Center announced that Paloma Valencia will be its presidential candidate for the 2026 elections in Colombia, while seeking a unity candidacy on the right. Credit: Andresx8, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia.

The Democratic Center’s presidential race for 2026 is finally beginning to take shape after months of disagreements, infighting, and resignations. This afternoon, the party led by former president Álvaro Uribe announced the designation of Paloma Valencia as the party’s official pre-candidate.

The result of the internal poll promoted by the Democratic Center confirmed what several analysts had viewed as an open contest among emblematic figures of the Colombian right. Valencia, a senator and one of the most visible voices within Uribismo, managed to outperform her closest rivals — María Fernanda Cabal and Paola Holguín — in a measurement that, according to the party itself, reflected the will of active members of the right-wing party.

National polls have been showing an unstable landscape for right-wing candidates, with levels of support that appear insufficient to ensure a competitive presence in the first round of the election. In this context, the designation of the senator as the Democratic Center’s official candidate necessarily opens the door to broader debates about the viability of a wider coalition that could bring together different right-wing and center-right forces around a common candidacy.

Paloma Valencia, Democratic Center’s 2026 presidential candidate

The selection of Paloma Valencia as a pre-candidate was not without tensions. The Democratic Center’s internal process was preceded by episodes of discord and mutual accusations, including the departure of Andrés Guerra and the expulsion of Miguel Uribe Londoño as contenders, for various reasons, including disagreements over the method for selecting the candidate.

The internal poll, conducted by the specialized Chilean firm Panel Ciudadano, was the mechanism that ultimately defined the structure of the race, leaving Valencia’s candidacy standing against the other two most visible aspirants: María Fernanda Cabal, with a combative and aggressive profile within Congress, and Paola Holguín, another figure with a track record within uribismo.

Valencia’s victory can be interpreted as a sign that significant sectors of the uribista grassroots were seeking a figure capable of bringing together, at least internally, different currents within the party. However, behind that apparent unity lie nuances that have not disappeared: the struggle for leadership remains latent and, in some areas of the party, doubts persist about how to face a presidential race that threatens to be one of the most demanding in recent decades.

A difficult but indispensable alliance for a right wing seeking to regain the Colombian presidency

The outcome of this internal poll takes on particular relevance when the broader political landscape in Colombia is examined. Public opinion measurements suggest that the traditional electoral base of the right is fragmented among multiple candidates, and even centrist sectors may be capturing part of that electorate.

Former President Álvaro Uribe himself has pointed to the possibility of a “democratic coalition” for next year’s elections, one that would go beyond the limits of the Democratic Center itself, especially after noting the limited support reflected in the polls for several weeks now.

Under this framework, figures from different right-wing parties and possibly independent leaders could come together around a shared platform that maximizes the chances of defeating candidates from other political forces, particularly in a polarized and competitive context. This coalition, however, for now appears far from materializing, given that candidates such as Abelardo de la Espriella and Sergio Fajardo have already announced that they will run directly in the first round of the elections—scheduled for May—without submitting to internal right-wing primaries.