We scrape all publicly available Twitter data (tweets) with mentions of the Brazil's six leading presidential candidates: Lula, Bolsonaro, Moro, Ciro, Doria, and Tebet. The trends show how the candidates perform in the social networks, offering insights into public opinion and the Brazilian election process.

The figure below shows the total number of tweets per day with mentions to each candidate. We computed a 7-day moving average, i.e., each value represents the average between the number of tweets in the current day and the 6-prior days. Moro left the presidential bid in late March 2022 and Doria in May 2022. Since then, Moro has lost popularity on Twitter. Since then, the discussion seems polarized between Bolsonaro and Lula. 

The figure below shows the total number of accounts per day with mentions to each candidate, ignoring successive tweets from the same account during one day. The line trends for the number of tweets (figure above) and the number of accounts (figure below) citing each candidate present similar dynamics and may be used interchangeably. 

We now focus on the main subjects discussed in these tweets. The figure below shows the number of tweets containing the names of the candidates and keywords related to four subjects: corruption, economy, religion, and Covid. Corruption is the most popular subject, followed by the economy. Covid lost popularity at the end of October, coinciding with the end of the second-wave in Brazil.

The next figures show the percentage of tweets for each candidate citing the selected keywords. Keyworkds related to corruption were popular especially among the tweets for Lula and Moro. These are the two protagonists of the Lava-Jato operation. Since Moro left the presidential bid, the discussion on corruption became more polarized between Lula and Bolsonaro. 

Keywords related to the economy were more popular among the tweets for Ciro. We identify a growing trend in this subject for Ciro between February and May 2022, probably related to the debate on the rising inflation in Brazil.  After that, the discussion on the economy lost ground and became more evenly distributed among the candidates.

The percentage of tweets mentioning the Covid pandemic among tweets for Bolsonaro climbed at the end of 2021. Words related to the Covid are more popular among tweets for Doria, the candidate associated with vaccination in Brazil. The former governor of São Paulo was a leading protagonist of the pro-vaccine movement in Brazil. Doria left the presidential bid in May 2022, but tweets with his name continue to cite Covid.

Keywords related to religion are more popular among the tweets for Bolsonaro, who holds strong support among Brazilian evangelicals.