MEXICO CITY — They came of age in Mexico’s young democracy but they have grown up in the midst of unremitting drug violence. They are the most highly educated voting bloc in Mexico’s history but face stagnant wages.

Above all, they are fed up with corruption and politics as usual and are ready to put the nation on a new, better course.

As Mexico gears up for a watershed election on July 1, with more than 3,000 positions at stake, one sector of the Mexican population could well determine the outcome: Mexico’s millennials and the subsequent Generation Z.

Nearly half of all eligible voters are younger than 39, and one of every five would be voting for the first time. It is an age group profoundly disenchanted with the political establishment and urgently seeking a moral leader to bring about real change.