Campaigns in Brazil's 2026 general elections raised R$ 770 million in the first ten days of campaigning. Political parties supplied most of the money: R$ 648.5 million, about 85% of the total. The figures come from Divulgacand, the disclosure system of the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, extracted on Wednesday (26) in a survey by the newspaper Folha.
Donations from individuals, combined with crowdfunding and transfers from other candidates, reached R$ 78.4 million. Candidates also spent R$ 42.7 million of their own money. The amounts are still far from what campaigns are expected to spend. In 2022, individual donations topped R$ 1.1 billion in inflation-adjusted values, according to Folha.
Public fund concentrates party money
The weight of the parties comes from the FEFC, the Special Campaign Financing Fund known in Brazil as the fundão, a public fund bankrolled by taxpayers. Parties have so far passed on about 12% of the nearly R$ 5 billion reserved for the fund: R$ 591 million. The PL, the party of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, holds the largest share, more than R$ 880 million, and has already delivered about 30% of it to candidates. The PT of President Lula, who is seeking reelection, has about R$ 615 million and has transferred 15% of it, according to Wednesday's data.
The PCdoB, the Communist Party of Brazil, distributed the largest percentage of the fund, about half of the R$ 60.5 million available to it. The liberal party Novo passed on 44% of its R$ 37 million. Beyond the public fund, parties finance campaigns in smaller volumes with private donations and the fundo partidário, a separate public fund that pays for party operations.
R$ 1 billion transfer left out of the tally
The Folha survey did not count a R$ 1 billion transfer from the PL to Diogo Siqueira, a candidate for federal deputy in Rio Grande do Sul, recorded in the TSE system. The candidate's staff told the newspaper the real amount is R$ 1 million and that there was an error in the registration.
The official campaign began on August 16. The figures remain far from what campaigns are expected to spend, according to Folha, and close to 90% of the fundão is still in the parties' hands. The first round is scheduled for October 4.