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The 2026 Rio Grande do Sul gubernatorial election will be held on 4 October 2026 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Voters will elect a Governor, Vice Governor, two Senators, 31 representatives for the Chamber of Deputies, and 55 Legislative Assembly members. If no candidate for president or governor receives a majority of the valid votes in the first round, a runoff election is held on 25 October.
Incumbent governor Eduardo Leite of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), reelected in 2022 with 57.12% of the vote, is term-limited and ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. Incumbent senators Paulo Paim of the Workers' Party (PT) and Luis Carlos Heinze of the Progressives (PP) are completing their eight-year terms; Paim has announced he will not seek reelection, while Heinze is eligible to run.
Incumbent governor Eduardo Leite (PSD) was reelected in 2022 with 57.12% of the vote, defeating Onyx Lorenzoni of the Liberal Party (PL), a former minister under President Jair Bolsonaro. Leite, who first governed the state from 2019 to 2022, resigned in March 2022 to pursue a presidential bid but returned to run for governor after failing to secure his party's nomination. Originally elected as a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Leite switched to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 2025.
Leite governs alongside Vice Governor Gabriel Souza of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), who has been launched as the coalition's candidate to succeed Leite, maintaining the centrist alliance against opposition from the right-wing PL and the left-wing PT.
Senators in Brazil serve an 8-year term, meaning the incumbents were elected in 2018.
Paulo Paim, a former metalworker and Federal Deputy, is serving his third term in the Senate. A historic figure in the Workers' Party (PT), Paim announced in November 2024 that he would not seek a fourth term in 2026, opening a major vacancy on the left.
Luis Carlos Heinze, an agronomist, former mayor of São Borja, and former leader of the ruralist caucus in the Chamber of Deputies, was elected to the Senate in 2018 with strong support from the agricultural sector. A member of the Progressives (PP), Heinze ran for governor in 2022 but finished third; he remains eligible to run for reelection to the Senate or to contest the governorship again.