diff --git a/MySQLdb/_mysql.c b/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
index 2a431dc..6e4269e 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
+++ b/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
@@ -398,6 +398,7 @@ _mysql_ConnectionObject_Initialize(
                   "client_flag", "ssl",
                   "local_infile",
                   "read_timeout", "write_timeout", "charset",
+                  "auth_plugin",
                   NULL } ;
     int connect_timeout = 0;
     int read_timeout = 0;
@@ -406,13 +407,14 @@ _mysql_ConnectionObject_Initialize(
     char *init_command=NULL,
          *read_default_file=NULL,
          *read_default_group=NULL,
-         *charset=NULL;
+         *charset=NULL,
+         *auth_plugin=NULL;
 
     self->converter = NULL;
     self->open = 0;
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwargs,
-                "|ssssisOiiisssiOiiis:connect",
+                "|ssssisOiiisssiOiiiss:connect",
                 kwlist,
                 &host, &user, &passwd, &db,
                 &port, &unix_socket, &conv,
@@ -424,7 +426,8 @@ _mysql_ConnectionObject_Initialize(
                 &local_infile,
                 &read_timeout,
                 &write_timeout,
-                &charset
+                &charset,
+                &auth_plugin
     ))
         return -1;
 
@@ -491,6 +494,9 @@ _mysql_ConnectionObject_Initialize(
     if (charset) {
         mysql_options(&(self->connection), MYSQL_SET_CHARSET_NAME, charset);
     }
+    if (auth_plugin) {
+        mysql_options(&(self->connection), MYSQL_DEFAULT_AUTH, auth_plugin);
+    }
 
     conn = mysql_real_connect(&(self->connection), host, user, passwd, db,
                   port, unix_socket, client_flag);
diff --git a/MySQLdb/connections.py b/MySQLdb/connections.py
index 5c5e6d4..04453fa 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/connections.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/connections.py
@@ -86,6 +86,11 @@ class Connection(_mysql.connection):
             On Python 2, this option changes default value of `use_unicode`
             option from False to True.
 
+        :param str auth_plugin:
+            If supplied, the connection default authentication plugin will be
+            changed to this value. Example values:
+            `mysql_native_password` or `caching_sha2_password`
+
         :param str sql_mode:
             If supplied, the session SQL mode will be changed to this
             setting.