It's natural that evangelicals vote for him now
In Brazil's ongoing negotiation between faith, politics, and institutional power, Jorge Messias — attorney general and Baptist — seeks confirmation to the Supreme Court, needing forty-one Senate votes against a wall of Bolsonaro-aligned resistance. André Mendonça, a sitting justice and fellow evangelical who once walked a similar gauntlet, has quietly offered to spend political capital on his behalf, invoking a network of shared identity and mutual debt. The deeper question the moment poses is an ancient one: whether a man can be seen whole, or whether the company he keeps will always define him more than the convictions he carries.
- Messias must secure forty-one Senate votes, but the Bolsonaro-aligned bloc — his most formidable obstacle — views him not as a jurist but as Lula's loyal instrument placed on the court for political convenience.
- The confirmation battle has reopened old wounds: Mendonça himself endured four months of deliberate delay in 2021, and it was Messias who helped shepherd PT senators to vote for him — a debt now being called in.
- The evangelical network is being mobilized as a cross-ideological bridge, with Mendonça's institutional prestige lending weight to what might otherwise read as a purely partisan campaign.
- Bolsonaro senators are dismissing the faith-based framing outright, arguing that shared religion cannot launder a political appointment, and that Messias's evangelical identity is incidental to his role as a Lula loyalist.
- The confirmation's trajectory now hinges on whether enough senators can be persuaded to see Messias through the lens of shared values rather than partisan allegiance — a repackaging his opponents are determined to refuse.
Jorge Messias, Brazil's attorney general, is navigating the Senate in pursuit of a Supreme Court seat, but the road is obstructed. He needs forty-one votes, and the senators most likely to deny him are those aligned with former president Jair Bolsonaro. Into this impasse steps André Mendonça — sitting Supreme Court justice, fellow evangelical, and a man who owes Messias a quiet but significant debt.
When Bolsonaro nominated Mendonça to the court in 2021, the confirmation was anything but smooth. The Senate's constitutional committee chairman held up his hearing for four months, and the Centrão bloc resisted him in favor of another candidate. It was Messias, then a senior aide to a Workers' Party senator, who helped bring PT votes to Mendonça's side. Cezinha de Madureira, a former head of the Parliamentary Evangelical Front, credits Messias as instrumental in that effort — and sees his support now as a natural return of the favor.
The two men share more than history. Both are evangelicals — Messias Baptist, Mendonça Presbyterian — and both have served as attorney general. That common ground has been carefully cultivated: in 2023, a lawyers' group close to Lula organized a dinner honoring Mendonça in São Paulo, where Messias praised him as a conciliatory and pacifying presence on the court. The alliance forming now has roots in that rapprochement.
Yet the Bolsonaro bloc is unmoved. Their objection is not to Messias's faith but to what they see as his function: a trusted Lula loyalist being placed on the nation's highest court for reasons of proximity and political reward rather than jurisprudential principle. One parliamentarian put it plainly — the evangelical credential cannot be used to reframe what is, in their view, a straightforwardly partisan appointment. The real contest, then, is whether Messias can be seen as something more than the role his opponents have assigned him, or whether the weight of his associations will prove impossible to shed.
Jorge Messias, the attorney general of Brazil's federal government, is making his rounds through the Senate in pursuit of what appears to be an inevitable appointment to the Supreme Court. But the path is not smooth. He needs forty-one votes to secure confirmation, and the resistance is concentrated among senators aligned with former president Jair Bolsonaro—the very bloc most likely to block him. Into this difficult terrain steps an unlikely champion: André Mendonça, a sitting Supreme Court justice and fellow evangelical, who has signaled privately that he is willing to spend political capital to help Messias clear the hurdle.
Mendonça knows something about confirmation battles. When Bolsonaro nominated him to the court in July 2021, he faced a gauntlet of opposition. The then-chairman of the Senate's constitutional committee, Davi Alcolumbre, held up his confirmation hearing for four months, hoping to install Augusto Aras, the federal prosecutor general at the time, into the vacant seat instead. The Centrão—Brazil's pragmatic center bloc—also resisted Mendonça, viewing Aras as a safer bet for their interests. But Messias, then serving as chief of staff to Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party, helped persuade PT senators to vote for Mendonça. Cezinha de Madureira, a federal deputy and former head of the Parliamentary Evangelical Front, credits Messias with being instrumental in that effort. "It's natural that evangelicals vote for him now," Madureira told the column.
The two men share more than just a history of mutual aid. Both are evangelicals—Messias belongs to the Baptist Church, Mendonça to the Presbyterian Church—and both have served as attorney general. That shared identity and experience creates a foundation for the alliance now taking shape. In 2023, Prerrogativas, an influential lawyers' group close to President Lula, organized a dinner in Mendonça's honor in São Paulo as a gesture of rapprochement. At that event, Messias praised Mendonça as a conciliatory minister who has worked with tranquility and a pacifying hand at the court, maintaining high-level dialogue with the government.
Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, the coordinator of Prerrogativas and an active campaigner for Messias's nomination, now counts on Mendonça's support as well. "We were never the problem for André Mendonça's appointment," Carvalho said. "We have respect and affection for him, a great jurist. I'm certain he will help Messias now." The evangelical network, in other words, is being mobilized—and Mendonça's willingness to participate gives it institutional weight.
Yet the Bolsonaro-aligned senators remain unmoved by the evangelical angle. They see Messias not as a man of faith but as an ideological creature of the PT, a trusted lieutenant of Lula chosen for the court because of proximity and loyalty, not principle. One parliamentar from the Bolsonaro bloc dismissed the evangelical strategy with a barb: "The evangelical criterion cannot be used in his favor. He's being nominated because he's a minister close to Lula, trusted by Lula, and it just so happens he's also evangelical." In this reading, Mendonça's support, however genuine, is merely cover for a political appointment. The real battle, then, is not about faith or shared institutional experience. It is about whether Messias can be repackaged as something other than what his opponents believe him to be: a loyal instrument of the sitting president, placed on the court to serve Lula's interests rather than the law's.
Citas Notables
Mendonça considers Messias the best name for the Supreme Court among those in contention, and the two get along well institutionally.— An interlocutor of Minister Mendonça
He's being nominated because he's a minister close to Lula, trusted by Lula, and it just so happens he's also evangelical.— A Bolsonaro-aligned senator
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why would Mendonça risk political capital to help Messias when Bolsonaro's senators see this as a trap?
Because Mendonça remembers 2021. Messias helped him when he had nowhere else to turn. That's not a small debt in the Senate.
But Mendonça is on the court now. He has security, legitimacy. What does he gain?
Institutional credibility, perhaps. If Messias gets in and proves to be a serious jurist rather than a partisan tool, Mendonça's judgment is vindicated. And there's something else—evangelical solidarity. It's real, even if Bolsonaro's bloc dismisses it.
The Bolsonaro senators say the evangelical angle is just window dressing. Are they right?
Partially. The evangelical network is real, but it's also convenient cover. Messias is being nominated because Lula trusts him. The faith component doesn't change that fundamental fact.
So Mendonça's help might not be enough?
It depends on whether forty-one senators believe Messias can be independent on the court. Mendonça can vouch for his character. He can't change the underlying political math.