Brazil: Bolsonaro Secures Key Endorsements Ahead of Runoff
Does this make Bolsonaro the runoff favorite,or does Lula still have a real path to reelection?
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Above: Ronaldo Caiado (L), Flávio Bolsonaro (C) and Tarcísio de Freitas in Goiânia on Oct. 6. Image credit: Sergio Lima/AFP/Getty Images
The Facts
- Brazil's front-runner presidential candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, received endorsements this week from first-round rivals Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema for the Oct. 25 runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- Caiado finished fifth with 2.18% of valid votes, or more than 2.6 million votes, and Zema came sixth with 0.27%, or more than 325,000 votes. Bolsonaro led Sunday's first round with 47.03% of valid votes, less than 3% short of the outright-win threshold.
- União Brasil and the Progressive Party, which together elected 87 lower house lawmakers and six senators in this election cycle, also announced their backing for Bolsonaro on Tuesday after remaining neutral in the first round.
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The Spin
Government-critical narrative
Bolsonaro is the clear choice heading into the runoff, and these endorsements prove it. Lining up other presidential candidates, elected governors and parties who were never part of his hardline base shows a coalition built on competence and shreds the smear that he's some radical. Concurrently, Lula stands completely alone.
Pro-government narrative
Anyone calling this race done is misreading the numbers. A few points shifted in each direction, and Bolsonaro's sky-high rejection suggests his ceiling could be much lower than the hype implies. With a fast overhaul of the messaging and a new generation of digital campaigners in charge, Lula still can turn things around.
