Mendonça Filho speaks at a convention that confirmed his candidacy for the Senate The PL launched, this Tuesday (4), the candidacy of federal deputy Mendonça Filho for the Senate. The announcement was made during a state convention held at the Bugan Hotel, in Boa Viagem, in the South Zone of Recife (see video above). The party decided to run for the Senate with its own candidacy, without being part of a ticket for the government of Pernambuco. The party also declared neutrality in the dispute for the Executive. This is the sixth time that Mendonça has run for a majority position, having been defeated in the previous five. ? Receive news from g1 PE on WhatsApp A lawyer by training, Mendonça Filho is a federal deputy, former governor of Pernambuco and former minister of Education. Initially, the parliamentarian intended to run for re-election to the Chamber of Deputies, but changed his plans after a reconfiguration of the electoral scenario. The Senate candidate for PL would be journalist Silvio Nascimento, who is a councilor from Caruaru, in Agreste, and presided over the Brazilian Agency for International Tourism Promotion (Embratur) in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). He gave up his own candidacy in favor of Mendonça Filho's. Mendonça Filho's candidacy arose after the definition of Governor Raquel Lyra's (PSD) ticket, whose party convention took place on Sunday (2). She is seeking re-election and launched federal deputies Túlio Gadêlha (PSD) and Eduardo da Fonte (PP) as candidates for the Senate. His name also gained strength after a Datafolha survey showed Mendonça with 10% of voting intentions in the two scenarios surveyed, in third place and ahead of the governor's two candidates. In a speech during the PL convention, Mendonça Filho said that he would support the candidacy for the Senate of Miguel Coelho (União Brasil), who was unable to make his own name viable within the federation with the PP. He also stated that after seeing Miguel being "riffed", he decided to try to become a senator. "I even had a candidate for the Senate with an option to vote, which was Miguel Coelho. He was, unfortunately, defenestrated. And I say 'now the time has come'. God touched my heart and I said 'I'm going to be senator of the Republic for Pernambuco'. But this fight cannot be a fight of just one person, it cannot be a fight of just me, Anderson, Isabel, Medina. It has to be a fight for all of us. We need to vocalize the voices of thousands and millions of voices of Pernambuco people who want to be represented, who want to have a senator who lives up to the traditions of politicians like Marco Marciel, like Roberto de Magalhães, who honored their public lives", he declared. Mendonça Filho's trajectory The convention held this Tuesday (4) announced Mendonça Filho's candidacy for the Senate in the 2026 elections Rafael Souza/g1 José Mendonça Bezerra Filho is 60 years old, a lawyer and politician. Born in Recife, he spent part of his childhood and adolescence between the capital and Belo Jardim, in Agreste de Pernambuco, his family's hometown and where he began his political career in the 1980s. He is the son of Estefânia Moura Bezerra and José Mendonça Bezerra, who was a federal deputy for eight terms and a state deputy for three legislatures. He spent forty years in the same political party and joined the PL in April this year. Before, it was from the PFL, which became the Democrats and, later, União Brasil, after the merger with the old PSL. Mendonça Filho was elected state deputy for the first time in 1986, and federal deputy in 1994. In 1998, with the election of former governor Jarbas Vasconcelos (MDB), he became vice-governor. In 2006, he took over the state government after the resignation of Jarbas Vasconcelos, who left the position to run for a seat in the Senate. That same year, he ran for re-election, but was defeated by Eduardo Campos (PSB). Mendonça returned to the Chamber of Deputies in different legislatures and, between 2016 and 2018, he was Minister of Education in the Michel Temer (MDB) government, which assumed the Presidency of the Republic after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT). In 2022, he was again elected federal deputy for Pernambuco. During the current term, he was appointed to act as rapporteur for the controversial Constitutional Amendment Proposals (PECs) on the age of criminal responsibility and public security, both of which are still being processed. The five majority elections he lost were as follows: Government of Pernambuco (2006): He ran for re-election after taking over the government with the resignation of Jarbas Vasconcelos. He reached the second round, but lost to Eduardo Campos (PSB). Recife City Hall (2008): He was a candidate, but lost to João da Costa (PT), elected in the first round. Recife City Hall (2012): He ran again for mayor and was defeated by Geraldo Julio (PSB), also in the first round. Senado (2018): Ran for one of the two vacancies up for grabs and finished in third place. Jarbas Vasconcelos (MDB) and Humberto Costa (PT) were elected. Recife City Hall (2020): Ran for the position again, but came in third place in the first round. The second round was between João Campos (PSB) and Marília Arraes (PT, at the time). Convention calendar Conventions are events in which party members meet to choose candidates in elections. The deadline is August 5th. Next, the names must be registered with the Superior Court (TSE) by August 15th. The election campaign officially begins the following day. In this year's elections, on October 4, Brazilians will vote for: president; governor; Senate (two seats per state); federal deputy; state deputy. VIDEOS: most seen in Pernambuco in the last 7 days