2022 Brazilian gubernatorial elections

Gubernatorial elections were held in Brazil on 2 October 2022 as part of the nationwide general elections to elect tickets with state governors and their vice governors (as well as the Governor of the Federal District and their vice governor). A second round was held on 30 October for states where no candidate was able to secure more than half of the votes in the first round.

Background
The behind-the-scenes run for governor in the state began after the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections, According to Brazilian electoral law, no one candidate can be declared before July 2022, until then all quoted persons to be candidates are called pre-candidates or potential candidates.

Acre
In Acre, incumbent Governor Gladson Cameli was reelected in the first round with 56.75% of the vote.

2018 election
In 2018, Glason Cameli, a former Senator for Acre and civil engineer affiliated with the Progressistas, was elected governor with 53.71% of the vote against Workers' Party candidate Marcus Alexandre and Social Liberal Party candidate Coronel Ulysses in the first round. Cameli, a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro, broke the rule of the PT in Acre after 20 years.

He was elected along with his Vice-Governor Wherles Fernandes da Rocha, also known as Major Rocha, a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party. Rocha during his tenure switched to the Social Liberal Party, the Brazil Union, and then the Brazilian Democratic Movement, a party which opposed Cameli in the 2022 election.

Operation Ptolemy
Cameli's first term saw a corruption investigation called Operation Ptolemy in 2021, in which the Federal Police investigated criminal organizations in Acre. Though Cameli has not been specifically targeted, the police seized some of Cameli's possessions, banned his international travel, and seized his passport. The police are also investigating his father Eladio Cameli and his brother Gledson Cameli. Overall the Federal Police found that at least 268.6 million reals in public funds had been stolen by the criminal organizations in fraudulent public contracts, but have not implicated Cameli.

Given no charge in the investigation prohibited his candidacy by the Superior Electoral Court or by the Ficha Limpa, which bans politicians convicted by a court, impeached, or resigned to avoid impeachment of running for eight years, Cameli was able to run for reelection.

Candidates
The election saw all three incumbent senators for Acre run, either for governor or vice governor. The candidates were as follows:
 * Gladson Cameli (PP), the incumbent governor, ran for reelection along with Maliza Gomes (PP) as vice governor. Gomes served as Cameli's alternate in the 2014 elections where he was elected senator and then as senator once Cameli was elected governor from 2019-2022. She was replaced by Bispo José (PL). Cameli's coalition "Advance to do more" was made up of the PP, PDT, Always Forward (PSDB, CID), PODE, SD, PATRI, PMN, DC, and PMB.
 * Jorge Viana (PT), a forestry engineer, who served as Mayor of Rio Branco from 1993 to 1997, Governor of Acre from 1999 to 2007, and Senator for Acre from 2011 to 2019, ran along with Marcus Alexandre (PT) for vice governor, the previous challenger to Cameli. Viana's coalition was made up of the Brazil of Hope Federation (PT, PV, and PCdoB).
 * Mara Rocha (MDB), a Federal Deputy and sister of Cameli's first vice governor Major Rocha, ran along with Fernando Alvares Zamora (PRTB), an agricultural producer for vice governor. Her coalition "Hope for a Better Acre Starts Now!" was composed of the MDB, PRTB, REP, and PL.
 * Sérgio de Oliveira Cunha (PSD) also known as Petecão, a Senator for Acre first elected in 2010, who formerly served as President of the Legislative Assembly of Acre and as Federal Deputy, ran along with Tota Filho (PSD), an attorney from Cruzeiro do Sul. Petecão's coalition "With the Strength of the People" was composed of the PSD, AVANTE, PROS, and PTB.
 * Márcio Bittar (UNIÃO), a former cattle rancher and senator first elected in 2018, who formerly served as a Federal Deputy, ran along with Dr. Georgia Micheletti (UNIÃO) for vice governor. Bittar's coalition was only made up of the Brazil Union, a party founded in 2021 as a union between the Democrats and Social Liberal Party, though Bittar was elected senator as a member of the MDB.
 * Professor Nilson (PSOL), a college professor, ran along with Jane Rosas (PSOL), a business administrator. The coalition was made up of the PSOL REDE Federation of the Socialism and Liberty Party and the Sustainability Network.
 * David Hall (AGIR), a high school teacher, ran along with Jorgiene Carneiro (AGIR). Their party Act or Agir in Portuguese ran an isolated ticket. The party was previously the Christian Labor Party and the National Reconstruction Party of the victorious Fernando Collor de Melo in 1989 elections.

Amazonas
In Amazonas, incumbent governor Wilson Lima was re-elected in the second round against former governor Eduardo Braga with 56.65% to Braga's 43.35%

2018
In 2018, Wilson Lima, a reporter and TV presenter most known for the program Alô Amazonas, was elected in the second round against incumbent governor Amazonino Mendes 58.50% to 41.50%. Lima, a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro, ran as a member of the Social Christian Party, a minor evangelical conservative movement. Mendes had been elected in 2017 in the supplementary elections after the impeachment of José Melo de Oliveira, who was elected in 2014.

Lima's Lt. Governor in 2018 was Carlos Almeida, a public defender affiliated with the right wing nationalist Brazilian Labor Renewal Party (PRTB). Almeida, having joined the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), broke with Lima in 2020 over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Amazonas, believing that Lima's enforcement of the Bolsonaro administration's Herd immunity policy was wrong. Almeida subsequently joined the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, which opposed Lima in the 2022 election.

Lima joined the Brazil Union (UNIÃO), a merger of the former Christian democratic Democrats (DEM) and conservative liberal Social Liberal Party (PSL), for the election.

Candidates
The election saw two former governors run, along with the incumbent. The candidates were as follows:
 * Wilson Lima (UNIÃO), the incumbent governor, ran for reelection along with Tadeu de Souza (AVANTE) as vice governor. Souza, a lawyer and close ally of the Manaus Mayor David Almeida, served as Lima's chief of staff from 2021 to 2022, after serving in the bureaucracy of Manaus. Lima was endorsed by Jair Bolsonaro in the second round, but Lima outperformed Bolsonaro by 6 points. Lima's coalition "Here is Work" was made up of the UNIÃO, AVANTE, PL, PTB, PATRI, PMN, PRTB, PSC, REP and PP.
 * Eduardo Braga (MDB), an entrepreneur and long time politician, who served as Mayor of Manaus from 1994 to 1997, Governor of Amazonas from 2003 to 2010, Senator for Amazonas from 2011 to present, and Minister of Mines and Energy in the Rousseff administration, ran along with Anne Moura (PT) for vice governor, the National Secretary for Women of the Worker's Party. He was endorsed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Braga's coalition was made up of the MDB, Brazil of Hope Federation (PT, PV, and PCdoB), and PSD. Amazonino Mendes em agosto de 2017.jpg, a former governor and mayor of Manaus, came third in the election. He died on 12 February 2023 at 83. |170x170px]]
 * Amazonino Mendes (CID), the 41st, 44th, and 48th Governor of Amazonas, who also served as a Senator from 1991 to 1993 and the 64th, 67th, and 71st Mayor of Manaus, ran along with Beto Michiles (PSDB), a former Federal Deputy for vice governor. Mendes ran without a coalition except for the party federation Always Forward made up of his party Cidadania and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
 * Ricardo Nicolau (SD), a hospital administrator and five time State Deputy in Amazonas, who formerly served as President of the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas and as City Councillor of Manaus, ran along with Cristiane Balieiro (PSB), a teacher. Nicolau's campaign focused on his health background and building more hospitals. Nicolau's coalition "We, the People" was composed of Solidarity and the Brazilian Socialist Party.
 * Carol Braz (PDT), a lawyer, former judge, and Secretary of State for Justice, Human Rights, and Citizenship, who formerly served as president of the PSC in Manaus before leaving the party, ran along with Claudio Machado (PDT), an engineer, for vice governor. Braz had no coalition.
 * Dr Israel Tuyuka (PSOL), an indigenous doctor and teacher from the Tuyuca ethnic group near Colombia, ran along with Thomaz Barbosa (PSOL), a radio announcer. Tuyuka ran without a coalition except for the PSOL REDE Federation of the Socialism and Liberty Party and the Sustainibility Network.
 * Henrique Oliveira (PODE), a radio presenter who previously served as the vice governor of Amazonino Mendes from 2017 to 2019 and a Federal Deputy from 2011 to 2015, ran alongside Edward Malta (PROS), a businessman and state president of PROS. Oliveira's coalition "Amazonas Wants More" was made up of PODE and PROS.
 * Nair Blair (AGIR), a businesswoman, ran along with Rita Nobre (AGIR), a dental surgeon. Their party Act or Agir in Portuguese ran an isolated ticket. Blair previously was elected but not charged in the investigation of the electoral crimes of former governor José Melo de Oliveira. The party was previously the Christian Labor Party and the National Reconstruction Party of the victorious Fernando Collor de Melo in 1989 elections.

Ceará
In Ceará, Elmano de Freitas, a State Deputy from the Workers' Party, with 54.02% defeated Capitão Wagner, a Federal Deputy from the Brazil Union, who received 31.72%, and Roberto Cláudio, former Mayor of Fortaleza from the Democratic Labor Party, who received 14.14%, in the first round.

De Freitas succeeded Izolda Cela, the Lt. Governor of Camilo Santana, who had resigned to run for Senate. Santana was elected succeeding Tasso Jereissati.

Rio Grande do Norte
In Rio Grande do Norte, incumbent governor Fátima Bezerra was elected in the first round.

She defeated former Vice-Governor Fábio Dantas, who ran in a coalition with Rogério Simonetti Marinho, Bolsonaro's Minister of Regional Development, and incumbent Senator Styvenson Valentim, elected in 2018, with 58.31% to Dantas's 22.22% and Valentim's 16.80%.

Paraíba
In Paraíba, incumbent governor João Azevêdo was elected in the second round against Federal Deputy Pedro Cunha Lima with 52.51% to Lima's 47.49%.

2018
In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Azevêdo was elected in the first round with 58.18% of all valid votes. He defeated Lucélio Cartaxo (PV), the twin brother of the Mayor of the state capitol João Pessoa, Luciano Cartaxo, who received 23.41%, and Zé Maranhão (MDB), a former governor of the state, who received 17.44%.

Background
Azevêdo succeeded Ricardo Coutinho, also of the Brazilian Socialist Party. Azevêdo was elected with Lt. Governor Lígia Feliciano of the Democratic Labor Party, who also served as Coutinho's Lt. Governor for his second term.

Abusive Advertising
During the 2018 election, Lucélio Cartaxo accused Azevêdo, along with Feliciano and Coutinho, of abusive and excessive use of State institutional propaganda during the 2018 elections, which would have benefited them electorally. Each of them was ordered to pay a fine of R$5,320.50. The decision was appealed but only Feliciano avoided the fine.

Operation Cavalry
João Azevêdo is being investigated at the Superior Court of Justice for being suspected of continuing the crimes investigated by Operation Calvário, which were allegedly commanded by the former governor of the State, Ricardo Coutinho. For this case, Coutinho was arrested, but managed to get out of prison through an injunction. According to a statement from the former Secretary of State, Livânia Farias, bribes paid by the Brazilian Red Cross helped defray João Azevêdo's expenses from April 2018, a period in which he began running for state elections. The transfers would have extended until the month of July, totaling around R$480 thousand. Azevêdo stated that he never received resources from anyone for personal use and that his campaign was supported by party resources.

Pernambuco
In Pernambuco, Raquel Lyra, former mayor of Caruaru, defeated Marília Arraes, a Federal Deputy and daughter of former governor Miguel Arraes in the second round.

Alagoas
In Alagoas, incumbent governor Paulo Dantas, a rural business administrator who took power after the resignation of Renan Filho to run for Senate, won reelection against incumbent Senator Rodrigo Cunha in the second round.

Renan Filho was elected by a wider margin than Dantas and was appointed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Minister of Transport.

Sergipe
In Sergipe, incumbent Belivaldo Chagas chose not to run for reelection after a series of scandals. Fábio Mitidieri, a Federal deputy from Chagas' party, won the election against incumbent senator Rogério Carvalho Santos from the PT.

In the first round, Valmir de Francisquinho, the popular mayor of Itabaiana from the Liberal Party, won 39.78% of the vote but his candidacy was cancelled, leading Mitidieri and Carvalho to the second round. Even with the unlikely endorsement of Francisquinho, Carvalho lost, continuing the failures of the PT in Sergipe state elections.

Bahia
In Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues, a bureaucrat in the government of incumbent Rui Costa and former National Secretary for Territorial Development in the Rousseff presidency, defeated ACM Neto, the former Mayor of Salvador da Bahia, Secretary General of the Brazil Union, and grandson of former governor ACM in the second round.

Rodrigues became Brazil's first self-declared indigenous governor.

Minas Gerais
Incumbent governor Romeu Zema defeated Belo Horizonte Mayor Alexandre Kalil in the first round.

Espiríto Santo
Incumbent governor Renato Casagrande won reelection a rematch against Carlos Manato, a former Federal Deputy.

Rio de Janeiro
Incumbent governor Cláudio Castro was elected to his first full term. He became governor after the impeachment of Wilson Witzel.

Castro defeated Federal Deputy Marcelo Freixo and former Mayor of Niterói Rodrigo Neves in the first round.

São Paulo
Incumbent governor João Doria resigned in a successful bid for the PSDB nomination for president. He later ended his campaign. His Vice-Governor Rodrigo Garcia was unsuccessful in a bid for a full term, failing to make the second round. Former Minister of Infrastructure in Bolsonaro cabinet, Tarcísio de Freitas was elected in an alliance with former São Paulo mayor Gilberto Kassab. Freitas defeated former Minister of Education, former Mayor of São Paulo, and 2018 presidential candidate Fernando Haddad in the second round.

Goiás
Incumbent governor Ronaldo Caiado won reelection against two right wing rivals in the first round.

Federal District
Incumbent governor Ibaneis Rocha won reelection the first round.

Mato Grosso
Incumbent governor Mauro Mendes won reelection the first round.

Mato Grosso do Sul
In Mato Grosso do Sul, Eduardo Riedel, former Secretary of Government and Infustructure for incumbent governor Reinaldo Azambuja, defeated Capitão Contar, a retired military officer and state deputy, in the second round.

Former Vice-Governor Rose Modesto, former governor André Puccinelli, and former Mayor of Campo Grande Marquinhos Trad were defeated in the first round. Riedel and Contar competed for Bolsonaro's endorsement which Contar received, while Riedel ran in a coalition with Bolsonaro's Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina who was elected to the Senate.

Paraná
In Paraná, incumbent governor Ratinho Júnior, son of presenter Ratinho and a former Federal Deputy, defeated former governor Roberto Requião, who joined the PT for the election to support Lula.

Santa Catarina
Incumbent governor Carlos Moisés, who had been caught up in several scandals was defeated in the first round.

In the second round, incumbent senator Jorginho Mello defeated former Federal Deputy Décio Lima, former mayor of Blumenau.

Rio Grande do Sul
Eduardo Leite, the incumbent and former mayor of Pelotas, resigned to launch a failed bid for the PSDB nomination. Upon his loss to João Doria, who later ended his candidacy, Leite ran again for governor. Leite edged out State Deputy Edegar Pretto in the first round to defeat Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro's Minister of Labor and Social Security, in the second round.