Trump-endorsed candidate and sportscaster lead Honduran presidential race

A billboard for National Party presidential candidate Nasry Asfura, a former mayor who has been endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Nov. 17, 2025. Election authorities in Honduras said early Monday that Asfura and a sportscaster rival were virtually tied in a presidential election that many predicted would be volatile even before Trump weighed in on the race. The banner reads “Honduras: We will be fine!” (Daniele Volpe/The New York Times)

By ANNIE CORREAL and JEFF ERNST

Election authorities in Honduras said Monday morning that the conservative former mayor endorsed by President Donald Trump and a sportscaster rival were virtually tied in a presidential election that many predicted would be volatile even before Trump weighed in on the race.

The preliminary and partial results showed that Trump’s pick, Nasry Asfura, and the sportscaster, Salvador Nasralla, were in the lead, with ballots from nearly 56% of polling places counted. The candidate for the left-wing party in power, Rixi Moncada, was trailing far behind, the early results showed, with around half the votes cast for each of the right-wing candidates.

Voters went to the poll just days after Trump endorsed Asfura and announced he would pardon an unpopular ex-president from Asfura’s National Party who was convicted on drug-trafficking charges in U.S. federal court last year.

Asfura had 40% of the vote, versus 39.8% for Nasralla, according to the preliminary and partial results. The gap between the two candidates was roughly 4,000 votes.

A member of Asfura’s campaign said it would wait until all votes were counted and electoral authorities announced the final results to declare victory. But at party headquarters in Tegucigalpa, the capital, Asfura’s supporters were already celebrating late Sunday, with some jumping up and down and others in tears.

Nasralla said the lead was so small that it amounted to a “technical tie.” His party insisted that when votes came in from the industrial north of the country, thought to heavily favor their candidate, he would be the winner. At a hotel in the capital, Nasralla took the stage and danced before a jubilant crowd.

“I have no doubt I’m going to win,” he said.

If the early lead holds, it will signal a victory not only for Asfura, a 67-year-old former mayor of Tegucigalpa known as Tito and Papi, but for Trump. On the eve of the vote, Trump suddenly declared the governing party “the Communists,” and threw his weight behind Asfura. On Friday, Trump also pledged to pardon the ex-president, Juan Orlando Hernández.