Cid Gomes will run for Senate in Ceará to help PT against Ciro Gomes

With the decision, the senator will reinforce the ticket of the current governor of Ceará, Elmano de Freitas (PT). Voting intention surveys indicate that Elmano is at risk of not being re-elected. The main opponent must be former minister and former governor Ciro Gomes (PSDB), Cid's brother. The PT has governed the state for almost 12 years.

The senator had a final conversation with Lula at Palácio da Alvorada this Tuesday (14). Elmano de Freitas, minister José Guimarães (Institutional Relations) and senator Camilo Santana (PT-CE), all from Ceará, also participated.

During the meeting, the president and Cid posed for photos that should be used to publicize the alliance. "The president made an appeal. I am a soldier of the party," Cid Gomes told Folha de S.Paulo.

According to him, Lula demonstrated that he was concerned about the possibility of electing few allied senators, which would weaken the government bench in Congress for a possible new term of office for the president.

"The Cid declared support for Lula and Elmano and will be our candidate for senator in one of the vacancies. He responded to the president's call," said Guimarães. According to him, it still remains to be decided who will be the second candidate for senator on Elmano's ticket.

In addition to Cid, the other senators from Ceará are Eduardo Girão (Novo) and Camilo Santana himself. Girão is expected to run for state government, while Camilo has four more years in office and will not run for office.

The President of the Republic seeks to resolve the last issues of the alliance for which he will contest re-election. The period of party conventions - when parties choose their candidates and formalize their support - runs from July 20th to August 5th.

The main problem to be resolved by the president is who his candidate for governor will be in Minas Gerais, a state that has the second largest electorate in the country. The expectation is that this week he will talk to federal deputy Patrus Ananias (PT-MG) to launch him into the dispute.

The creation of regional alliances is relevant for the president's platform. The idea is for candidates for governor and senator to campaign in the states for the ally running for federal government.

The brothers Cid and Ciro Gomes, both former governors of Ceará, have been separated since 2022. The current senator disagreed that year with his brother's decision to break the local alliance with the PT and launch a candidate for government through the PDT. Ciro, during this period, intensified his criticism of President Lula's party and intends to have the support of Bolsonaro supporters in the state.

The alliance between Ciro and the PL in Ceará was the pivot of the disagreement between presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

Michelle rejects the support and cites the attacks made on Bolsonaro by the PSDB pre-candidate in previous presidential campaigns.

Last Friday (10), Flávio participated in a political event in Fortaleza in which the pre-candidacy for the Senate of state deputy Alcides Fernandes (PL), father of André Fernandes, federal deputy who is the main guarantor of the broad alliance strategy to face governor Elmano de Freitas, was launched.

Read Also: Dino gives Congress 30 days to explain allocation of amendments