Ronaldo Caiado

He was a federal deputy, a senator from 2015 and Governor of Goiás from 2019 to 2026. He joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in March 2026, which chose him as its candidate for President of Brazil in the 2026 election.

Career

Caiado trained as a physician in Rio de Janeiro and specialised in orthopaedics. He founded his political career in the Democratic Rural Union (UDR), a landowners' group he later headed, and ran for President in 1989, taking 0.72% of the vote. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies in 1991–1995 and 1999–2015, was a Senator for Goiás from 2015 to 2019, and was Governor of Goiás from 2019 to 2026. He moved through several parties, among them the Democrats (DEM) and União Brasil, before joining the PSD in March 2026.

Positions

Wikipedia describes Caiado as both economically liberal and politically conservative, on the right, and a frequent critic of the Workers' Party (PT). Diário do Nordeste notes his links with agribusiness issues and his origins in the UDR, which defends rural producers' interests.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Diário do Nordeste

Photo: Bianca Kida, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)