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🇧🇷 Brazil /Elections & Politics

Augusto Cury gains backing from Marçal allies and a wave of apolitical Instagram influencers

From Estadão · () Portuguese

Translated from Portuguese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • An Estadão survey found at least 40 Instagram accounts outside politics promoting Augusto Cury or asking followers to vote for him between August 26 and 29.
  • The accounts cover subjects including finance, health, entrepreneurship, humor, beauty, religion and family life, with some influencers saying Cury had given them hope.
  • Cury's Instagram following rose from 8.4 million to 10.7 million in two days, while recent polls placed him between 7.8% and 11%, and allies of Pablo Marçal have helped his campaign.

Augusto Cury's presidential campaign has found an unusual online boost: microinfluencers who generally avoid politics are suddenly urging their followers to support him.

An Estadão survey identified at least 40 such accounts posting videos or positive comments about the Avante candidate between August 26 and 29. Some have only a few thousand followers. Their usual subjects include finance, healthy living, entrepreneurship, humor, beauty, motorsport, religion, business and motherhood.

I’m going to vote for him, every video I scroll past only has this guy, I don’t even want to know what he does.

· Unnamed humor influencerA 14,300-follower account described its support for Cury.

Several influencers said they had never discussed politics before announcing their support. Many used Cury's name as a hashtag and posted the same image showing his photograph and ballot number. One humor account with 14,300 followers said, “I’m going to vote for him, every video I scroll past only has this guy, I don’t even want to know what he does.” Another account, followed by 119,000 people, said it would not reveal that its vote was number 70.

A beauty and fitness influencer with 661,000 followers said, “Never in all these years have I talked about politics, I have never taken a political position. But this guy gave me hope.”

I will not reveal that my vote is number 70.

· Unnamed variety-content influencerAn account followed by 119,000 people referred to Cury's ballot number.

The pro-Cury wave began on August 26, as his Instagram following surged from 8.4 million that day to 10.7 million two days later. Polls then began to record a sharp rise in his support. A Nexus/BTG poll on August 31 put him in third place at 11%, up from 2% the previous week. Atlas/Bloomberg measured him at 7.8%, up from 1.6%, while a Quaest poll showed him at 10%, separate from the other candidates outside the PT-PL axis.

Cury has also received help from Filippe Neto, a business partner of Pablo Marçal, and Nahuel Gómez Medina, Marçal's adviser. The article presents the backing as part of Cury's effort to challenge the established polarization, while noting that taking votes from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro remains difficult.

Never in all these years have I talked about politics, I have never taken a political position. But this guy gave me hope.

· Unnamed beauty and fitness influencerAn influencer with 661,000 followers explained her support for Cury.
About this summary

Originally published by Estadão in Portuguese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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