Efraín González Luna

Efraín González Luna (18 September 1898 – 10 September 1964) was a Mexican politician and lawyer who was one of the founders and leaders of the National Action Party (PAN). He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1952 presidential election, making him the party's first presidential candidate. A devout Catholic and a Christian democrat, he played an important role in establishing the party's ideology and its connections to the Catholic Church.

Born in Jalisco to a wealthy family, González Luna studied law at the University of Guadalajara. He became involved in Catholic activism, and in 1939, with Manuel Gómez Morín and others, he co-founded the PAN, a conservative party committed to Christian humanism and liberalism. He served as the president of party's Jalisco branch from 1940 until 1951. The party did not run presidential candidates in the elections of 1940 and 1946, finally making González Luna their first presidential nominee in the 1952 election. He competed against Adolfo Ruiz Cortines of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and two other candidates, Miguel Henríquez Guzmán and Vicente Lombardo Toledano. Ruiz Cortines won in a landslide, with González Luna coming in a distant third.

Following his loss, he continued to promote the PAN's candidates in Jalisco until his death. In Guadalajara, there is a street named after him and a statue bearing his likeness. The party that he co-founded remained in opposition until rising to prominence in the 1980s and finally winning the presidency in 2000. González Luna's son, Efraín González Morfín, was the PAN's presidential candidate in 1970.