President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's leftist Morena party has apparently unseated the conservative National Action Party in the governorship of the border state of Baja California.

Baja California became the first state in Mexico where an opposition party won a governorship in 1989, and National Action held it ever since.

But National Action could not overcome Lopez Obrador's high approval levels. It also lost the governorship in the central state of Puebla, according to preliminary vote counts.

Those counts showed Morena candidate Jaime Bonilla with 50% in Baja California, and National Action's Jose Vega at 23.2%.

In Puebla, Luis Miguel Barbosa got 44.7% to 33.3% for Enrique Cardenas of National Action.

Baja California is home to the city of Tijuana, and has been hit by a growing wave of homicides.