With the focus on the president’s re-election, it adopted a cautious strategy for 2026, curbing internal desires and postponing decisions on its own candidacies for state governments and the government until next year.
The first step towards unlocking the negotiations was taken last week, with the installation of the Electoral Working Group (GTE), the body responsible for coordinating the party’s national strategy for the 2026 electoral dispute.
The group will be led by the (PT-CE) and its mission will be to coordinate actions with three priority focuses: re-electing Lula, expanding the PT benches in the Chamber and Senate and ensuring strong state platforms that are articulated with allies.
The order is to expand negotiations and reduce the boil in the states, avoiding sudden movements that harm the national campaign.
“The priority is the re-election of President Lula. We have to build strong candidacies in the democratic field against this portion of the right that is organized in Brazil with an ideological definition inspired by fascism”, says Edinho Silva, national president of the PT.
He says that strategies will be drawn up according to the reality of each state, with priority given to choosing names capable of blocking candidates aligned with the former president ().
Upon being appointed coordinator of the GTE, José Guimarães highlighted the Northeast as central to the national strategy. The goal is to have, in all nine states, at least one candidate for senator from the PT and another from an allied party.
Another objective of the party is to guarantee presence in all states, with the election of at least one federal deputy per federation unit.
In the states, local directories signal their own candidacies for government and the Senate, putting the pre-campaign on the streets. Survey of Sheet points out that the PT has pre-candidates for governor in at least 11 states and the Federal District.
Four of them are considered guaranteed names at the polls: the governors (BA), Elmano de Freitas (CE) and Rafael Fonteles (PI), who are running for reelection, in addition to secretary Cadu Xavier (RN), chosen to succeed PT governor Fátima Bezerra.
Of the four, Fonteles is in the most comfortable situation and is considered the favorite in a scenario of fragmented opposition. Elmano and Jerônimo take the lead, but face a challenging scenario in their states, with an organized opposition and bottlenecks in public security.
Cadu Xavier, Finance Secretary of the Fátima Bezerra government, will have a more complex task as he is unknown. He relies on the president’s popularity. For this, he began to be called by his allies as “Cadu de Lula”.
In the other states, the main bet is Rio Grande do Sul, where the name of former deputy Edegar Pretto appears well placed in the polls. But the candidacy is still uncertain given calls for unity on the left.
In the Federal District, the PT ordered the suspension of the elections that would take place in November between Geraldo Magela, former deputy, and Leandro Grass, head of Iphan (Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage). The guideline is that local directories do not anticipate the definition of applications.
Five of the six senators whose term ends in February 2027 have signaled that they will run for re-election in the House. Paulo Paim (PT-RS) had said he would not run for a new term, but it became an option again after appeals from allies.
Outside of this group, the candidacy of Fátima Bezerra, governor of Rio Grande do Norte, is also taken for granted. But, in other states, intentions will depend on the local situation and its impact on the national scenario.
In Bahia, the definition of governor Jerônimo Rodrigues’ re-election ticket will remain until next year. “We are in no rush, our allies know this”, says Adolpho Loyola, state secretary of Institutional Relations.
The base in the state has faced tensions since 2024, when the Minister of the Civil House, (PT), signaled his desire to run for the Senate, and the PT started to defend a pure-blood ticket, with Jerônimo, Rui and.
The strategy conflicts with the desire of the senator (), who wants to run for re-election. The imbroglio will require a delicate political seam, since the PSD has more than one hundred city halls in Bahia and is an ally of Lula in the state.
The scenario is similar in Ceará, where PT member José Guimarães is seeking one of the seats in the Senate, but other base parties want to join governor Elmano de Freitas’ (PT) ticket.
In recent weeks, Guimarães raised his tone by criticizing PT allies in Ceará who voted against agendas of interest to the Lula government. This was the case of deputies Júnior Mano (PSB) and Moses Rodrigues (União Brasil), who are negotiating to run for the Senate on the PT ticket.
PT members Benedita da Silva (RJ), (SP), Érica Kokay (DF) and Marcelo Ramos (AM) are also tipped to run for the Senate.
Still in São Paulo, sectors of the Lula government are still considering supporting the House or .
While its own candidacies remain undefined, the PT accelerates negotiations for alliances with other parties.
The most recent movement took place in Paraná, where the party indicated support for state deputy Requião Filho () in the dispute for state government.
Outside the left, subtitles like PSD and should be preferred allies. PT members must support Omar Aziz (PSD) in Amazonas, (MDB) in Alagoas and Hanna Ghassan (MDB) in Pará.
