Eduardo Leite

Elected with 3,128,317 votes – 53.62% of the valid votes cast in the 2018 election, Eduardo Leite is the governor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. He was born in Pelotas, on March 10, 1985, and took office as governor at the age of 33, currently being Brazil’s youngest state governor. His engagement in politics began early in his life: Eduardo Leite was elected Mayor of Pelotas City for the 2013-2016 term, and before that, served as municipal secretary, city councilor, and president of the City Council in his hometown.
In nearly three years in office, Eduardo Leite approved the most radical administrative and social security reforms among the Brazilian states. Moreover, fiscal adjustment and government budget balance have been highly prioritized. Eduardo Leite has also pursued an agenda of privatization and concessions of public services. Moreover, the Moving Forward (Avançar) Program was recently launched, whose total investment by the State Treasury will exceed R$4 billion, in areas like culture, health, education, innovation and security.
Regarding public security, the measures taken by Eduardo Leite’s administration have been consistently reducing crime rates, which is a result of the RS Seguro Program implemented in the first half of 2019.
Americas Quarterly chose Mr. Eduardo Leite as one of the five most promising politicians in Latin America under the age of 40. Beyond his political career, he studied Public Policy at Columbia University (NY), and was attending a master's degree in public management at Fundação Getúlio Vargas when he was elected governor.