Lula's Would-Be Heir Kicks Off Presidential Race in Brazil

[Judi Lynn]

By Simone Preissler Iglesias
July 20, 2018, 6:00 AM CDT

- Ciro Gomes is first candidate to get party endorsement
- Forging alliances and broadening appeal among his challenges


Ciro Gomes, who hopes to become the standard bearer of Brazil’s left in the October presidential race, is getting his party official backing but still struggles to forge alliances and broaden his appeal among voters.

Gomes’ Democratic Workers Party, or PDT, is the first to endorse a candidate on Friday, kicking off a series of party conventions that will map out Brazil’s election field over the next two weeks. The former Ceara state governor polls second or third in different opinion polls that exclude Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the jailed ex-president whose supporters he would like to win over.

In the most uncertain election since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985, most candidates are having a hard time signing up allies. Gomes, like many of the leading contenders, goes into its party convention without a running mate, a position typically offered to a coalition partner in return for support.

In recent weeks, Gomes has courted the right-wing Democratas party as well as the socialist PSB party. In an attempt to win over Lula’s voters, he has also sought a running mate from the Workers’ Party, such as former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad. Yet Lula’s party has so far insisted on standing by the former president as its only electoral option, even though he will likely be barred from running.

More:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-20/lula-s-would-be-heir-kicks-off-presidential-race-in-brazil