Overview
- Flávio Bolsonaro read his father's handwritten endorsement outside a Brasília hospital after Jair Bolsonaro underwent hernia surgery, formalizing him as the movement's 2026 standard-bearer.
- Jair Bolsonaro remains incarcerated after a Supreme Court conviction and 27-year sentence tied to efforts to overturn the 2022 result, preventing him from running.
- The family decision sidelined other Bolsonaro hopefuls, with Eduardo Bolsonaro self-exiled in the United States and stripped of his congressional seat, and Michelle Bolsonaro previously floated as an internal alternative.
- Tarcísio de Freitas, the São Paulo governor and Bolsonaro ally, is still weighing a presidential run, and analysts cite polling that casts him as a potentially stronger right‑of‑center challenger to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- Seeking to lock in centrist support, Lula added Gustavo Feliciano to his cabinet as tourism minister, a move seen as outreach to parties like Republicanos and União Brasil before the October 4, 2026 election.