Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is desperate.
No president has ever stood for re-election facing such unfavorable odds. Recent polls place him 19 points behind Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. If the elections were today, the center-left former president would win in a first-round landslide.
While the sample size is small (only three presidents have run for re-election since redemocratization), no one has ever failed in such an attempt since the right to contest a second consecutive term was introduced in 1998. Losing in the first round would be an even more historic defeat.
The despair around the Bolsonaro campaign...
