The elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Zucco (PL), celebrated his victory in the first round this Sunday (4) in a sound car, in Porto Alegre. At 8:30 pm, with 99.11% of the sections counted, the candidate had 58.05% of the valid votes. The elected vice-governor is Silvana Covatti (PP).
"It was a beard, hair and mustache!", celebrated the future governor of RS.
In the state, in addition to Zucco's election, the PL had Sanderson as the candidate for the most voted senator and Mauricio Marcon as the candidate for the most voted federal deputy. Zucco's ally, candidate for senator Marcel Van Hattem (New) was also elected.
With more than 99% of the votes counted, Zucco's brother, Delegado Zucco (Republicans) led the dispute as a candidate for state deputy, with more than 128 thousand votes.
At the beginning of the evening, at the campaign committee in Porto Alegre, Zucco spoke to supporters:
"To all the people of Rio Grande do Sul who believed in our project. Thank you very much for believing in Silvana. A shout out to Silvana! I also want to thank you very much for putting our two senators", he celebrated.
"Emotion takes over at this moment. It was the people of Rio Grande do Sul who won this election. It is an honor and a great emotion to be elected governor of my beloved Rio Grande do Sul. I won, Silvana won, our alliance won, the right wing won. What won, above all, was a new hope, a desire for prosperity", he said in a speech as governor-elect.
"If we are good at fighting, we are also good at unity. History has already proven that when the Gauchos unite, no one holds back: a unity pact. We will have a lot of work to do before any announcement. Rio Grande will grow again," he added.
On his social networks, the current governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite (PSD), congratulated Zucco on the election:
"I recently spoke with the elected governor, Luciano Zucco, and congratulated him on his victory. The people of Rio Grande do Sul made their choice democratically and I wish the new government success. In the coming days we will open an exemplary transition process, with the greatest responsibility towards the people of Rio Grande do Sul."
Luciano Zucco (Alegrete, 1974) grew up in Serra Gaúcha and later lived and studied in Porto Alegre. A career soldier who graduated from the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (AMAN), he served in the Parachute Infantry Brigade, where he specialized as a sniper and jump master.
He has a master's degree in Military Sciences and Strategic Intelligence, with a specialization in Negotiation and Crisis Management and an Executive MBA in Private Security. He served in the Presidency's Institutional Security Office (GSI), participated in official missions in Brazil and abroad, commanded the intelligence of security operations in Complexo do Alemão and was a professor at the Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre.
In 2018, he was elected state deputy with 166,747 votes, the highest vote in RS for the Legislative Assembly. In 2022, he was elected federal deputy with 259,023 votes, again the most voted in the State, this time for the Federal Chamber, where he presided over the MST CPI and was leader of the opposition to the Lula government.
In the 2026 election, he is the candidate of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in RS and has the following parties in the coalition: PL, PP, Republicans, Podemos, DC, Novo and União Brasil.
The Rio Grande do Sul election was marked by a high number of undecided voters, after a campaign centered in the Metropolitan Region, and by “doubles” in debates.
Gauchos entered the official campaign period with one of the most undecided electorates in the country. In a round of research released by Quaest at the end of August, RS had the highest rate of indecision for president of the Republic. It also had the second highest rate of undecided people in the stimulated survey for the state government and was the fourth with the most undecided people in the spontaneous survey, when the candidates are not presented to the interviewee.
The behavior of the electorate reflects a campaign that had difficulty advancing in the interior of the state. A survey carried out by g1 mapped the agendas of the four best-positioned candidates in voting intention polls, whose parties have representation in the National Congress, and shows a campaign concentrated in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre.
