São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) has been prioritizing the electoral dispute on social media, and this strategy has been generating results in terms of reach. Since the official start of the campaign on August 16, the candidate for reelection has been achieving an average of 10.6 thousand interactions per content published, a number significantly higher than that of his main adversary at the polls, Fernando Haddad (PT).
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva activated the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) against alleged facts said by his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in an interview with Globo, asking that alleged lies during the interview be investigated. The São Paulo Prosecutor's Office, on the other hand, did not directly blame Tarcísio, but considered that it is not a coincidence that a Military Police action involved Haddad's driver.
Fernando Haddad, who previously served as Finance Minister, has an average of only 6.5 thousand interactions per post, which represents less than half of his opponent's performance. The PT candidate's disadvantage is aggravated by the fact that he has a higher volume of publications than Tarcísio, which makes the engagement rate even more unfavorable for the party.
The engagement data was collected by consulting firm Bites at the request of GLOBO newspaper. Each candidate's investment on the platforms helps explain this performance difference. While Tarcísio spent R$ 388 thousand on boosting posts on social media, the amount of resources applied by Haddad was not detailed in the available portion of the article.
