Even after having placed it on eight occasions in 2025, the president (PT) will start the presidential election year without a defined platform in the state.
The territory is considered strategic as it has the second largest electoral college in the country and is recognized as a type of . Since redemocratization, all candidates who won the national election also triumphed in the state.
Lula’s accumulation of visits to build a Minas Gerais candidacy contrasts with 2023, the first year of his administration, when he began his travels.
In 2025, part of the PT member’s events in the state were accompanied by the senator (-MG), who even spoke in an electoral tone.
Pacheco to position himself as an antagonist, albeit indirectly, of the governor (Novo) and senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicans) — treated like the Palácio Tiradentes, as well as the (PSD).
Hopes among left-wing parties about a Pacheco candidacy, however, diminished in the last quarter of the year.
After telling the senator that he (Supreme Federal Court) stayed with Jorge Messias, Lula heard from the interlocutor that the tendency is for him to leave public life at the end of his term in office, in February 2027.
Another obstacle to Pacheco’s eventual candidacy is the affiliation of Zema’s vice-president to the PSD, which was confirmed in the presence of the party’s national president, .
Publicly, the candidacy of the senator allied with the Government of Minas, something that would depend on a party change.
“I said to Pacheco: ‘Man, I’m asking you to help me win the elections for the Presidency of the Republic. You will be governor of the second most important state in Brazil. You can make a difference in this electoral process. He was reluctant, reluctant, but he thinks I gave up. I didn’t give up,” said the president in an interview in December.
Behind the scenes, however, the PT is looking for other names for a Minas Gerais platform in 2026.
One of them is that of the president of the Legislative Assembly, Tadeu Leite (MDB). He was on stage at Lula’s last ceremony in the state in 2025, in , in an event that was not attended by Pacheco.
The articulation has been built by the national president of the PT, Edinho Silva. It would involve Tadeuzinho, as the deputy is known, joining the PSB for the viability of a candidacy.
The politician with an electoral base in the north of Minas Gerais, however, has also shown his allies restrictions on a majority candidacy next year.
Another factor that could weigh negatively against him is his leadership of the Legislative Assembly. The issue was strongly opposed by left-wing parties.
At the event with Lula in Belo Horizonte, Tadeuzinho was booed by PT activists, who called him a “thief”.
In its internal ranks, the PT’s greatest electoral assets are the mayors of Contagem, , and Juiz de Fora, Margarida Salomão, but the two publicly deny that they will be candidates for government in 2026.
The first admits leaving municipal management to run for the Senate, while the second must continue to lead the municipality of Zona da Mata.
Another option considered by the party is to reissue the 2022 partnership, when it supported the candidacy of (PDT), today in the first instance.
The former mayor of Belo Horizonte, who has also had conversations with Edinho, would not refuse support, but has said that he would not like to return to the strategy of the last campaign, when he was considered “Lula’s candidate”.
The situation is similar for Gabriel Azevedo (MDB), former president of the City Council of the capital of Minas Gerais, who declares himself a pre-candidate for Palácio Tiradentes. He seeks to build an alternative far from the PT and PL representatives.
