Factbox: Mexico ruling party picks Vazquez Mota as candidate

(Reuters) - Voters from Mexico's ruling conservative party backed their first woman presidential candidate on Sunday. In July, she will face the opposition candidate, who has a substantial lead in the polls, and a third party hopeful.

Here are some facts about the National Action Party's (PAN) primary winner:

Josefina Vazquez Mota, 51, was Calderon's education minister before becoming leader of the PAN in the lower house of Congress. Recent polls have marked her as the most popular PAN candidate among the general electorate.

Her tenure as education minister was rocked by clashes with the head of the powerful teachers' union - Elba Gordillo, dubbed "The Teacher," whom some Mexicans see as the country's most powerful female politician.

After leaving the Cabinet, Vazquez Mota took the top party post in Congress and was widely regarded as one of its most capable lawmakers. She has vigorously backed Calderon's reforms, but her efforts to shepherd them through Congress frequently foundered due to opposition from the PRI.

She stepped down from her congressional role in September to focus on the presidential bid and is popular among grassroots PAN voters, opinion polls show.

Vazquez Mota, who has three daughters, is playing up her status as a mother to appeal to women voters, posing with her family for a photoshoot and interview in the society magazine 'Quien,' in which she talked about her 27-year marriage and penchant for designer clothes.

A former journalist who supported Calderon's run for the presidency in 2006, Vazquez Mota has an outside chance of becoming Mexico's first woman president.

(Reporting By Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Stacey Joyce)