Senator Flavio Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, leading President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 47.2% to 44.9% with 99% of the votes counted, and will face Lula in a second-round election on Oct. 25, 2026, Fox News reported.
Fox News reported that most polls had shown Lula with a single-digit lead in the weeks before the vote and described the result as a surprising outcome that undercut those polls.
The report said Bolsonaro posted particularly strong results in Brazil’s south and won the country’s three largest states by large margins: in São Paulo state Bolsonaro led 52% to 38%; in Minas Gerais he led 48% to 43%; and in Rio de Janeiro he led 53% to 39%, according to Fox News.
Fox News reported that Lula racked up large margins in his traditional strongholds in the Northeast, winning vote-rich Bahia, Pernambuco and Ceará by wide margins, but that those gains did not offset Bolsonaro’s strength in the south.
The Fox News article said four major third‑party candidates — Augusto Cury, Renan Santos, Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema — together received nearly 8% of the vote and that it is suspected Caiado and Zema may back Bolsonaro while Cury and Santos likely will not endorse either candidate.
Fox News also reported that other members of Jair Bolsonaro’s family won higher office: his wife, Michelly Bolsonaro, and his son Carlos Bolsonaro were elected to the Senate, and another son, Renan Bolsonaro, was elected federal deputy.
The report said Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party performed strongly in legislative races and is expected to hold about 29 seats in the Senate compared with about nine for Lula’s Workers’ Party, Fox News reported.
Fox News wrote that, if elected, Flavio Bolsonaro is widely expected by supporters to free his father and several senior military officers who are currently jailed on charges related to alleged plans to remain in power after the 2022 election; that account was presented in the Fox News report as a prospective outcome if Bolsonaro wins the runoff.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
