The Brazilian presidential elections of 2018 and 2022 in Rondônia:

the right-wing dominance in the heart of Bolsonarism

Abstract

The text analyzes the presidential elections of 2018 and 2022 in Rondônia. This was the only state where Bolsonaro emerged victorious in all municipalities, in each round of both elections. After a contextualization of the Brazilian politics and the Rondonian party subsystem, the study presents a mapping of Bolsonaro's votes in the state, with data by electoral precinct in the 52 municipalities of Rondonia. In 40% of the cities, Bolsonaro won in literally every electoral section, in all four rounds contested. In only 20 municipalities did defeat occur in some electoral section in the four rounds. And in only 2 municipalities (Costa Marques and Parecis) are there defeats in all four rounds registering above 10% of the municipality's ballot precincts. Bolsonaro's worst defeat does not reach 30% of the electoral precinct, recorded in the 1st round of 2018. The data also show a temporal advancement of Bolsonarism, with better performance in 2022 than in 2018. The research contributes to understanding the advancement of a radicalized right in the state and provides empirical subsidies to a research agenda in the field of political science at the subnational level.