A family affair
Formerly a long-serving member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, Jair Bolsonaro has become the fulcrum for a political movement based around his own nuclear family.
Each of his four sons has embarked on a political career. In October’s general election, his second oldest son Carlos is running for a Senate seat. His youngest son Jair Renan is competing for the Chamber of Deputies.
Meanwhile, his third son, Eduardo, moved to the United States in 2025 to lobby President Donald Trump for help with his father’s trial.
He lost his congressional seat that December because of repeated absences, and in June, a Brazilian court ruled that Eduardo’s efforts amounted to illegal foreign interference.
Even former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro commands her own political clout, enjoying immense popularity among Brazil’s conservative evangelical Christians.
In the lead-up to the 2026 election season, Michelle was floated as a possible right-wing candidate for the presidency. But in December, Jair offered a jailhouse endorsement to his son Flavio.
Though imprisoned, the ex-president remains a powerful figure in the Liberal Party, a right-wing juggernaut.
Columnist Fabio Zanini, a political analyst for Brazil’s biggest newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, described the Bolsonaro family as a nest of competing interests.
“It’s a dysfunctional family. They often fight among themselves,” he said.
But their disparate political activities have created what Zanini calls a “franchise”, with influence across different spheres of Brazilian politics.
Flavio himself has sought to channel his father on the campaign trail. In early September, with less than a month remaining until the first round of voting, Flavio rallied on the streets of Juiz de Fora, an industrial city in the country’s southeast.
The location was symbolic: His father survived a near-fatal stabbing in downtown Juiz de Fora during his successful 2018 presidential bid.
Flavio used his visit to retrace his father’s route, saying he had returned to “complete the journey” Jair was unable to finish.
