Political Intelligence

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro Missed 43% of Recorded Senate Votes in 2026

Voting-attendance data from Brazil's Senate carries direct relevance for U.S. observers tracking the Bolsonaro family's political trajectory and its documented ties to American conservative donors...

The Congressional Times · June 28, 2026

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), a declared pre-candidate for Brazil's presidency and a figure with documented connections to U.S.-based conservative political organizations, was absent for 43 percent of recorded nominal votes in Brazil's Senate through June 22, 2026, according to a tabulation published by Folha de S.Paulo citing official Senate voting records. Of 49 nominal votes analyzed — proceedings in which each senator must register an individual vote — Bolsonaro cast no vote in 21 instances, ranking him fifth among absentees, tied with four other senators.

The U.S. dimension of this record is not incidental. Federal Election Commission filings and reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project have previously documented fundraising activity and political networking between members of the Bolsonaro family and American political donors, PACs, and advocacy organizations. Attendance and legislative engagement records are a standard metric used by U.S. campaign finance analysts when assessing the governing credibility of allied foreign politicians who solicit American political support.

The Folha analysis excluded symbolic votes, in which individual positions are not publicly recorded, focusing exclusively on nominal deliberations that produce a verifiable individual voting record. The methodology is consistent with the approach applied by the U.S. GovTrack service when calculating congressional participation scores for members of the U.S. House and Senate.

No statement from Flávio Bolsonaro's office explaining the absences was included in the Folha report, and it is unknown whether official Senate records classify the missed votes as excused absences, unexcused absences, or conflicts. Brazil's Senate attendance rules, like those of the U.S. Senate, distinguish between categories of absence for pay and quorum purposes. The full granular breakdown of each missed vote by date and subject matter is publicly available in the Brazilian Senate's electronic voting archive at senado.leg.br, which would reveal whether absences clustered around specific legislative periods or topics.

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