Brazil's leading presidential candidates have already declared R$151 million in campaign spending with 17 days to go before the first round. The figures come from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top election authority, with data updated through Thursday (17), and were compiled by G1, Globo's news portal. The vote is set for October 4.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT), who is running for reelection, accounts for the largest share: R$65 million. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is next with R$55 million. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) declared R$24 million, Romeu Zema (Novo) R$4 million, Renan Santos (Missão) R$1.2 million and Augusto Cury (Avante) R$265,000. Lula has already spent 73% of the R$88.9 million ceiling the TSE allows for the first round; Flávio has used 62% of the limit.
The records are part of the partial campaign finance reports published on DivulgaCand, the TSE's disclosure platform. They cover financial movements between August 16 and September 8; the filing deadline closed on September 13. Brazilian rules set a spending cap for each office in each election: presidential candidates may spend up to R$88.9 million in the first round and another R$44.5 million in a runoff, which adds up to R$133.4 million for the whole campaign. Final reports are due within 30 days of the election, or after the runoff for those who advance. Winners who fail to file cannot receive their diplomas, the formal certification of election, while they remain in default.
Nearly half of Lula's spending went to one agency
A single contract accounts for 47% of Lula's spending: R$31 million paid to the agency Delta3 Comunicação for "specialized communication and marketing services," according to the DivulgaCand record. The firm belongs to Bahia-born advertising executive Raul Rabelo and film director Francisco Mascarenhas Kertész, known as Chico Kertész. The two were partners of Sidônio Palmeira, the current minister of the Social Communication Secretariat and a member of Lula's campaign, at M4 Comunicação, later renamed Nordx Estratégia e Criatividade. Sidônio is no longer a partner in the company.
The rest of Lula's ledger spreads across production, media and legal work. The campaign paid R$4.2 million to Log Produções & Filmes, R$2.7 million for print advertising and stickers to the printer NMC Gráfica across 100 payments, and R$2.5 million to boost content on Facebook, an amount registered under the platform's name even though the ads may also run on other Meta apps such as Instagram. Another R$100,000 went to boosting on Kwai. Legal services totaled R$4 million split among five law firms; the largest transfer, R$1.5 million, went to Ferraro e Novaes Advogados, the firm of the campaign's legal coordinator, Ângelo Ferraro. Lula also spent R$1.5 million on internal election polling with Oma Pesquisa and distributed R$950,000 to Workers' Party state chapters in 11 states.
What comes next
According to G1, the filings show similar strategies behind very different budgets: digital communication, social media boosting and legal services appear in the accounts of nearly every presidential campaign, alongside old-fashioned street materials such as stickers and flags. The next milestone is the October 4 vote. Whoever reaches a runoff gets an extra spending cap of R$44.5 million and more time to report: the final filing is due 30 days after the election.