Left-wing congressman Guilherme Boulos, who was last year’s top vote-getter for the House representing the state of São Paulo, is leading the latest Datafolha poll for the mayoral race in Brazil’s largest city.
Mr. Boulos scored 34%, compared to 24% for incumbent mayor Ricardo Nunes, and above other young lawmakers who may run for the office, Tabata Amaral (11%) and Kim Kataguiri (8%).
Almost half (49 percent) of respondents said the Nunes administration is doing merely an “O.K.” job, while the remainder are split between those who approve of his work, and those who disapprove. These approval ratings are in line with data for past mayors, and have been rising over the past year.
Mr. Boulos, an activist for the rights of the urban homeless and the current whip of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) in the House, is currently in his first term as congressman. Meanwhile, the younger Ms. Amaral and Mr. Kataguiri were re-elected last year for their second terms.
Mr. Boulos became nationally famous in 2018 by running a dark horse presidential candidacy and participating in televised debates, naming his rivals “fifty shades of [Michel] Temer,” Brazil’s then-president. He won less than 0.6% of the vote, doing worse than his party colleague Luciana Genro did in 2014.
In 2020, Mr. Boulos first ran for mayor of São Paulo, qualifying for the runoff against the late Bruno Covas, the incumbent at the time, and losing by 59% to 41%. Having battled cancer, Mr. Covas died in May 2021 and his lieutenant Ricardo Nunes has served in his place since.
In 2022, Mr. Boulos got over 1 million votes to represent São Paulo in the House. Crucially, almost half of those votes came from São Paulo city. Mr. Boulos’s chances might have improved with the fact that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his candidates for governor and senator also won in the capital last year, despite their losses in the state.
Last month, Lula’s Workers’ Party confirmed that it will back Mr. Boulos’s mayoral candidacy, meaning that for the first time in the party’s history it will not have its own candidate competing for the São Paulo mayor’s office.
Datafolha surveyed 1,092 São Paulo residents this week. The results were disclosed on Thursday.
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