Six members of the Bolsonaro family are expected to compete for seats in Brazil’s October general elections, with candidacies for the presidency, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Bolsonaro family gained political prominence through Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s president between 2019 and 2022 and whose surname remains one of the leading reference points for the Brazilian right.
Flávio Bolsonaro, known as the former president’s “01” son, will seek to follow in his father’s footsteps and reach the Planalto Palace, having built his political career in Rio de Janeiro, where he served as a state legislator before becoming a senator, currently representing the state.
The 45-year-old senator is running for president through the Liberal Party, the same party as his father, against current head of state Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection to a fourth term leading Latin America’s largest economy.
The mother of Flávio, Carlos (“02”) and Eduardo (“03”), and former president Jair Bolsonaro’s first wife, Rogéria Bolsonaro, was announced by the Liberal Party as a candidate for federal deputy representing Rio de Janeiro. With a political career in that city, Rogéria Bolsonaro previously served as a city councilwoman there in 1992 and 1996.
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The former president’s only brother, Renato Bolsonaro, will attempt to be elected federal deputy for São Paulo for the first time at age 61.
On Sunday, Michelle Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s wife, emerged as a Senate candidate for the Federal District in the October elections, also running through the Liberal Party (PL). Michelle, a practicing evangelical who played a significant role in her husband’s 2022 presidential campaign, is seen within Bolsonarist circles as key to attracting female and conservative voters.
In the state of Santa Catarina, one of the Bolsonaro clan’s major political strongholds, Flávio’s brother Carlos Bolsonaro and half-brother Renan will both run. The former president’s second son, 43, and former Rio de Janeiro city councilman, will run for the Federal Senate. Renan, 28, a city councilman in Balneário Camboriú, a coastal city in Santa Catarina, will seek a federal deputy seat representing the southern state.
The family’s patriarch, Jair Bolsonaro, remains ineligible to run and under house arrest over his attempted coup following the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to current President Lula da Silva.
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His son Eduardo Bolsonaro is also ineligible. Living in the United States since February of last year, Eduardo claims he is the target of alleged political persecution by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court. He was sentenced by that court to four years and two months in prison for obstruction of justice in connection with legal proceedings, following his father’s conviction for attempting a coup.
Political parties, federations and coalitions have until August 15 to submit candidacy registration requests to Brazil’s Electoral Court, which must still be validated by Brazilian authorities. On October 4, the first round of voting, more than 146 million Brazilians will head to the polls to choose new political representatives for the offices of president, governor, senator, federal deputy and state or district deputy.
