Find out who Flávio Bolsonaro is: presidential candidate for Brazil
Oldest son of Jair Bolsonaro, lawyer built his career in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, reached the Senate and became a candidate for the Palácio do Planalto
The trajectory of Flávio Bolsonaro follows the transformation of the family surname into one of the main forces of Brazilian politics. At 45, the senator for Rio de Janeiro and candidate of the PL for the Presidency of the Republic contests the second round of the 2026 elections against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). Before the race for the Plateau, he accumulated four mandates as a state deputy and a parliamentary career marked by the defense of public safety guidelines, proximity to his father and judicial controversies.
Born in Resende, in southern Fluminense, on April 30, 1981, Flávio Nantes Bolsonaro is the eldest son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. He grew up in a family that would make political activity a constant presence: in addition to his father, the brothers Carlos and Eduardo also built electoral careers. Graduated in Law from the Candido Mendes University, Flávio studied public policy and entrepreneurship. He has been married since 2010 to dentist Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, with whom he has two daughters, Luiza and Carolina.
Entry into the polls came early. In 2002, at the age of 21, he won a seat in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro, taking office in February 2003. He was re-elected in 2006, 2010 and 2014, remaining for 16 years in the state legislature. In Alerj, he chaired commissions and concentrated part of his work on matters related to public safety and police activity.
In 2016, he tried to move from the Legislative to the Executive by running for the Prefecture of Rio de Janeiro. He ended the contest in fourth place, with approximately 424,000 votes, and was out of the second round. Two years later, he achieved a victory of greater projection: he was elected senator by Rio, with about 4.38 million votes, in the same election in which Jair Bolsonaro won the Presidency of the Republic.
In the Senate, where he took office in February 2019, he kept public safety among his main flags. He was the rapporteur of the proposal that resulted in Law 14,843 of 2024, responsible for restricting the temporary release of prisoners. It also reported the text that modernized the national tourism legislation, converted into Law 14.978, of the same year. In 2025, he assumed the presidency of the House Public Security Commission.
During his father’s government, between 2019 and 2022, Flávio participated in the political articulation and acted as an interlocutor between the Palácio do Planalto and the Congress. His position combined the parliamentary mandate with family proximity to the president, a condition that opened up space for negotiations and discussions of interest to the Executive.
The national rise was also accompanied by investigations. The most repercussions involved the suspicion of the return of part of the salaries of servants of his former office in Alerj, a practice known as “rachadia”. The case gained visibility after the identification of financial movements considered atypical in the accounts of Fabrício Queiroz, his former advisor. In 2020, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro filed a complaint against Flavio, who denied the accusations.
Decisions of the High Court of Justice and Supremo Tribunal Federal have nullified evidence used in the investigation. The complaint was filed. The outcome was the invalidation of the elements that supported the accusation, without representing a judicial conclusion of merit on all the facts investigated. Flávio says he did not participate in the collection of salaries of advisers and maintains that the accusations were politically motivated.
In 2026, another investigation began to integrate the scenario of his candidacy. The Federal Police investigate suspicions related to the financing of “Dark Horse”, a film about Jair Bolsonaro, and the negotiations with Daniel Vorcaro, the Banco Master. Flávio denies irregularities and claims that he sought private investment for production, without offering counterparts. Suspicions remain under investigation.
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The presidential candidacy took his career to a new stage. Chosen by his father to represent the political group in the 2026 dispute, Flavio formed a board with federal deputy Alfredo Gaspar (PL). In the first round, he received 47.03% of the valid votes, according to the Superior Electoral Court, and advanced to the decisive vote against Lula.
More than two decades after his first election, Flavio arrives at the national executive with a trajectory built mainly on the Legislative. Its history brings together the parliamentary experience in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the political influence of the family and the questions that accompanied its public projection. On Sunday, October 25, he seeks the first term of his career at the head of an Executive Branch.
