President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) lands in Salvador on Friday (28) to boost the reelection campaign of Bahia governor Jerônimo Rodrigues and to try to contain the spread of the so-called "LuNeto vote", Folha de S.Paulo reports. The term describes voters who back Lula for president while choosing ACM Neto (União Brasil), a former Salvador mayor and Lula's main rival in the state, for governor.
The event, branded "Sextou com Lula" (roughly "Friday with Lula") by the campaign, gathers at 4 p.m. at Largo do Guarani, in the Liberdade neighborhood, a predominantly Black district of Salvador, and proceeds on foot to the Plano Inclinado, according to Jornal Grande Bahia. Joining Jerônimo are his running mate and vice governor, Geraldo Júnior, and former governors Jaques Wagner and Rui Costa, both running for Bahia's two Senate seats. It is Lula's second trip to the state in a month, Folha says, and his first campaign stop in Bahia since the official campaign period began, on the same day free TV and radio election advertising debuts, Rádio Itatiaia notes.
The trip reflects the Workers' Party strategy of a combined Lula-Jerônimo vote. The campaign wants to nationalize the state race and turn it into a choice between projects for and against the president, Folha reports. The governing coalition, built around the Brasil da Esperança federation (PT, PCdoB and PV), promotes the ticket under the label "Lula's team in Bahia", Jornal Grande Bahia reports.
The playbook mirrors 2022. That year, Jerônimo took 52.8% of the vote and beat ACM Neto in a runoff, while Lula won 72.1% in Bahia and defeated Jair Bolsonaro by a margin of more than 4 million votes in the state. The gap between the two results measures the scale of split-ticket voting, which four years ago gained ground in Salvador and mid-sized cities in the interior, according to Folha.
This year the combined vote has spread on social media, with jingles and comedy sketches openly advocating the "LuNeto vote". ACM Neto, meanwhile, has avoided attacking Lula on the trail, Folha says. The latest Quaest poll on the race put Neto at 39% of first-round voting intentions and Jerônimo at 37%.
The Liberdade walk opens Lula's weekend of street campaigning. On Saturday morning (29), the president attends the National Women with Lula Meeting in Belo Horizonte, at 10 a.m., Itatiaia reports. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.