Ciro Gomes

Gomes was the candidate of the PDT in the 2018 presidential election, which took place in two rounds in October 2018. Political analysts had widely speculated that, since Lula was legally barred from running for president (after his conviction for corruption, under Brazil's "Ficha Limpa" law), Gomes would attract many of Lula's supporters in the 2018 presidential election, and potentially unite a number of left and center-left political parties. He has sharply criticized far-right rival candidate Jair Bolsonaro as a "fascist" for his pro-military rule statements. Gomes finished in third place in the first round.

Since 2017, his girlfriend has been TV producer Giselle Bezerra; she was previously a dancer on the popular Brazilian TV show Xuxa.

Gomes has occupied a number of prominent political offices. He served two terms as a State Deputy in Ceará, was the Mayor of Fortaleza, and then Governor of Ceará (a highly populated state in the Northeast of Brazil). He was Minister of Finance in the Itamar Franco administration during the implementation of the "Plano Real," which successfully stabilized the economy and ended hyperinflation. He served as Minister of National Integration during the Lula administration. His most recent political office was as a Federal Deputy for Ceará, from 2007 to 2011. He is generally described as a center-left politician.

He supported Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the 2002 election, and was ultimately chosen to be the Minister for National Integration in Lula's new government. When the PPS' leadership voted to leave the governing coalition in December 2004, Gomes chose to remain in his post. As a result, the PPS removed him from the party leadership, and he decided to join the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). In 2006 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 16.19% of the vote, the highest percentage ever achieved by a single candidate in a proportional election.

He was married to his second wife, Brazilian actress Patrícia Pillar, from 1999 to 2011. In 2013, he began a relationship with Zara Castro, with whom he had his fourth child, Gael, in 2015. Gomes is the godfather of his advisor Roberto Mangabeira Unger's eldest child, Gabriel.

He was a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), but left the party in 1996. He later moved to the Socialist People's Party (PPS) and ran as the Presidential candidate for the PPS in 1998 and 2002. In 1998, Gomes came in third place in the first round, and won 11% of the vote (only the top two candidates advance to the second round). In 2002, he came in fourth place in the first round, with 12% of the vote.

Gomes has lived in Ceará for most of his life, graduating with a degree in law from the Federal University of Ceará. He was a professor of tax law and constitutional law, and wrote three books on political economy: "No País dos Conflitos" ("In the Country of Conflicts",1994); "O Próximo Passo – Uma Alternativa Prática ao Neoliberalismo" ("The Next Step - A Practical Alternative to Neoliberalism", 1995), co-authored with Harvard professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger; and "Um Desafio Chamado Brasil" ("A Challenge Called Brazil," 2002). He was also a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. He served in the private sector as the President of Transnordestina S/A (a commodities transportation company in Northeastern Brazil), and on the Board of Directors of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional. Two of his four siblings (Cid Gomes and Ivo Gomes), his father, and his uncle, have all been involved in Brazilian politics.

In 1994 he served as Minister of Finance in the administration of Itamar Franco. This appointment came at a crucial time in Brazil's modern economic development, when the Real Plan was underway as an economic stabilization program to fight hyperinflation. His successful performance overseeing the Real Plan was credited by some with helping Fernando Henrique Cardoso win the subsequent Presidential election in the fall of 1994, after Cardoso campaigned on continuing the plan's implementation, but Gomes broke with the Cardoso government in 1997.

One of his most high-profile achievements as governor was the construction of a 71-mile long water canal, the "Canal do Trabalhador." Northeastern Brazil suffered a series of droughts in 1991, 1992, and 1993; in 1993, Gomes managed to organize and complete the construction of the canal in only 3 months, successfully bringing water to the capital city of Fortaleza and thus preventing a water supply crisis.

Gomes was elected the Governor of Ceará in 1990, at the age of 32, becoming the second youngest governor in the country at the time. His efforts included policies to support small businesses and reduce bureaucracy. He also cracked down on tax evasion, increasing state revenue. Gomes also ordered increased investments in education and in public health; by July 1992, a Datafolha poll found he was the most popular governor in Brazil, with a 74% approval rate, and Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most important emerging leaders on the world stage.

In January 1989, Gomes started his term as the elected Mayor of Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará.

He was married to his first wife, politician Patrícia Saboya Gomes, from 1983 to 1999, with whom he has three children: Lívia, Ciro and Yuri. Like her husband, Patricia Saboya Gomes was also politically active in the Northeastern state of Ceara, including serving as a Federal Deputy and a Senator for the state; the two were seen as political allies.

Gomes ran for office for the first time in 1982, as a State Deputy representing Sobral, and won; he began his first term in February 1983. Gomes attracted substantial media attention early on for his willingness to debate national political questions - including democracy, social reforms, and international relations - which he said other Ceará politicians ignored. In 1985, Gomes also started teaching tax law as a professor at the University of Fortaleza.

Gomes enrolled in the Law School of the Federal University of Ceará in 1976. Gomes later recalled that within the student movements of the time, he was most closely affiliated with the Catholic Left. Upon graduation, Gomes returned to the city of Sobral, to work for the local government as a municipal prosecutor.

Ciro Ferreira Gomes (born 6 November 1957), often known monomyously as Ciro, is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and academic, affiliated with the Democratic Labor Party (PDT). He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Brazil three times, in 1998, 2002 and was the PDT's presidential candidate in the 2018 Brazilian election.

Gomes was born in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo, the son of José Euclides Ferreira Gomes Filho and Maria José Ferreira Gomes in 1957. His family moved to Sobral, Ceará in 1962. His father's family, the Ferreira Gomes family, has been active in Ceará politics for several generations.