1955

President Elect.

When JK became governor in 1950, Getúlio Vargas was elected President of the republic. Getúlio Vargas committed suicide in 1954, and his Vice President, Café Filho, took over the presidency. Café Filho would soon become one of JK’s competing candidates for President and would do everything possible to impede future candidates who did not confirm with his political convictions or those of UDN (União Democrática Nacional, the National Democratic Union). Café Filho would affiliate himself with this party mainly to obstruct JK’s candidacy—albeit not a member of this political party himself.
At PSD, the Social Democratic Party, Juscelino Kubitscheck’s candidacy for President had already been taken for granted. His candidacy was officially endorsed on February 10, 1955. The slogan of his campaign was “Fifty years in five” (fifty years of progress within five years of government). His running mate in the electoral campaign was João Goulart, also known as Jango. João Goulart was a member of PTB (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, the Brazilian Workers’ Party). Together, the two parties PSD and PTB would be critical for the stability of JK’s government.

The opponents’ massive pressure, mainly from UDN, triggered a process of feuds against the candidacy of JK and Jango. Yet, this pressure had hardly any impact. On October 3, 1955 JK was elected the twentieth President of Brazil and João Goulart his Vice President. Their opponents had been Ademar de Barros (PSP), Juarez Távora (UDN) and Plínio Salgado (Partido Integralista). JK was almost 500,000 votes ahead of Juarez Távora, the candidate with the second most votes.