Simone Nassar Tebet (; born 22 February 1970) is a Brazilian lawyer, professor, and politician who served as Minister of Planning and Budget from 2023 to 2026. A member of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), she previously served as Senator for Mato Grosso do Sul from 2015 to 2023, vice-governor of the same state from 2011 to 2014, and mayor of Três Lagoas from 2005 to 2010, becoming the first woman to hold the latter two posts.
The daughter of Ramez Tebet, a former President of the Federal Senate, she built her career in Mato Grosso do Sul before entering national politics in 2015. In the Senate she led the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) caucus, presided over the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission, and stood for the Senate presidency. Holding socially liberal and pro-market positions, she has been active on gender equality and agribusiness policy.
Tebet was the MDB's candidate in the 2022 presidential election, campaigning on a centrist Third Way platform and finishing third in the first round with 4.16% of the vote. She endorsed Lula ahead of the runoff, which he won narrowly, and joined his cabinet the following year. As minister, she was a leading advocate of fiscal discipline and institutional stability, often acting as a bridge between the government's left-leaning bloc and business sectors. In 2026, Tebet left the MDB for the PSB to run for the Senate in the 2026 São Paulo general election with Lula's support.
Early life Tebet was born in Três Lagoas on 22 February 1970 to governor, senator, and President of the National Congress Ramez Tebet and Fairte Nassar Tebet, a philanthropist, both of Lebanese descent.
Education Tebet graduated in law from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is a specialist in legal science from the Escola Superior de Magistratura, and has a master‘s degree in state law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. She began her career as a professor in 1992, working at Dom Bosco Catholic University, Anhanguera-Uniderp University, and the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul.
She was a legal technical consultant for the Legislative Assembly of Mato Grosso do Sul between 1995 and 1997 and legislative technical director between 1997 and 2001.
Early political career Simone Tebet started her career in 2002 when she was elected as a state representative in Mato Grosso do Sul with 25,251 votes, becoming the most voted woman that year.
Mayor of Três Lagoas In 2004 Tebet was elected for the first time as the first female mayor of Três Lagoas.
During her first term, she maintained the strong industrialization movement of the city, initiated by her predecessor Issam Fares. In February 2006, private investments in the industrial expansion of Três Lagoas in the last sixty months totaled 1.1 billion reals.
The main private investment attracted to the city was the International Paper factory, opened in 2009 and whose investment was 300 million dollars. Between 2006 and 2009, Três Lagoas experienced a 40% growth in its industrial activity.
In the 2008 municipal elections, she was reelected to the post with more than 75% of the votes.
State Government On 31 March 2010, Tebet resigned from the mayor's office to join André Puccinelli's ticket in the election for the government of Mato Grosso do Sul, as a candidate for vice governor. With the ticket victorious, she became the state's first female vice-governor. Between April 2013 and January 2014, Simone headed the Government Secretariat.
Simone Tebet was also director of municipal affairs at the Association of Municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul and a member of the Representative Council for the Midwest of the National Confederation of Municipalities.
Federal Senate
In the 2014 parliamentary elections, Tebet ran for senator for Mato Grosso do Sul, being elected on 5 October. She was sworn in as senator on 1 February 2015.
Legislative positions In August 2016, she voted in favor of impeaching Dilma Rousseff. In December of that same year, she voted in favor of the PEC do Teto dos Gastos Públicos.
In June 2019, she voted against the government's Decree on Arms, which made it easier to carry and hold firearms. In April 2018, she was chosen leader of the MDB bench in the Federal Senate, a position she held until January 2019.
In July 2017, the senator voted in favor of labor reform.
Indigenous lands Tebet, while Senator, defended the payment of compensation to farmers, whose land was taken for indigenous peoples. She also proposed suspending the demarcation of further lands for indigenous peoples for up to four years. Both proposals were criticized by human rights organizations, who point to alleged conflicts of interest, pointing out that the Senator owns a farm in Caarapó, Mato Grosso do Sul. The municipality's recent history has been marked by violence against indigenous populations. Tebet was defended by agricultural interests and Jair Bolsonaro.
Covaxin investigation Tebet spearheaded an inquiry into Covaxin fraud in the Senate. She questioned the leader of a taskforce that distributed vaccines and why the contract with the Indian company was cancelled. She reportedly found 20 instances of fraud and said that the documents "should have never gone to the health ministry." She also found multiple translation and formatting errors that the Chief of Staff of the Presidency Onyx Lorenzoni had seemingly ignored, along with cheaper vaccine alternatives like Pfizer and found financial error in the work of Élcio Franco, who is now under investigation by Rosa Weber, a justice of the Supreme Federal Court. In this way, she became one of the main critics of Jair Bolsonaro's COVID-19 response.
Senate politics In October 2017, she voted in favor of maintaining the mandate of Senator Aécio Neves, overturning the decision of the First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court, where Neves was accused of corruption and obstruction of justice for requesting two million reais from businessman Joesley Batista.
In 2019, the senator disputed the nomination of her party for the candidacy for the presidency of the Federal Senate. However, Renan Calheiros was nominated, losing the election among his party senators by 7 votes to 5. Subsequently, Simone launched a separate candidacy for the position, but ended up withdrawing to increase the chances of a victory for Davi Alcolumbre ( then DEM, now UNIÃO ) over Renan Calheiros, which eventually occurred.
In 2019, she become the first woman to preside over the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission. It is considered the most important one in the Senate.
Senate presidency
2017 In the elections for the presidency of the Federal Senate of Brazil in 2017, Simone was a pre-candidate for president of the house. However, her party nominated Senator Eunício Oliveira to run for that position.
2021
In January 2021, she was nominated by her party to run for the Senate Presidency. However, the MDB, the party to which Tebet is affiliated, withdrew from the senator's launch to run for office, after signaling the opposing candidate, Rodrigo Pacheco. In this way, Tebet's candidacy became independent. On 1 February 2021, Rodrigo Pacheco was elected president of the Senate, with votes from 57 senators, Tebet obtained 21 votes, placing herself in second place.
Other elections In the 2018 elections, after the arrest of the then candidate for the state government and governor, André Puccinelli, Simone was nominated for governor, however, she later withdrew from the race due to family issues.
Presidential campaign
Announcement Tebet presented herself as a candidate for the Presidency in the 2022 elections, standing on a Third Way platform. Her candidacy was seen as a non-controversial replacement to the failed pre-candidacies of João Doria, Eduardo Leite, and Sergio Moro, being supported by their former aides.
Supporters In February, she announced economist Elena Landau as the campaign economic coordinator. Landau is known for her work in former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration and for being part of LIVRES, a social liberal movement.
The Brazilian Democratic Movement, in a virtual convention, officialized on 27 July 2022 the candidacy of Tebet for President but the party was still split, as part of some leaderships endorsed Lula, but Tebet's candidacy has the support of the party's national president Baleia Rossi. After talks of some MDB factions with Lula, the party published a note signed by member of 19 states endorsing senator Tebet.
Parties The party formed a coalition with PSDB and Cidadania, nominating Mara Gabrilli, PSDB, a senator from São Paulo as vice president. Podemos also joined the coalition, after Sergio Moro left the party, abandoning his precandidacy, to run for senate in Paraná with the Brazil Union.
It is the first presidential election since 1994 that the PSDB has not nominated their own candidate.
Platform Simone Tebet presented her government plan on 15 August, the last day for candidates to register their candidacy with the Electoral Justice. The document has 48 pages, where the presidential candidate proposes a permanent minimum income program, tax and administrative reforms and zero tolerance for illegal deforestation.
Her platform has been connected to what many view as issues more important to women such as the environment and education, and with this push, Tebet has portrayed herself as the candidate for women disaffected by Bolsonaro.
Results Before the election, pundits expected Tebet to at most reach 6%. On 2 October 2022, Tebet failed to reach the run-off, garnering just 4.16% of the vote. She gained greater percentages in the North, South, and Southeast, especially in São Paulo, but faltered in the Northeast. However she passed Ciro Gomes to become the third place candidate and a kingmaker in the second round.
Endorsement of Lula Tebet met with Geraldo Alckmin, Lula's running mate, on 4 October, presenting her governmental plan to his and Lula's campaign. While the Brazilian Democratic Movement released its members, with Governor Ibaneis Rocha of the Federal District endorsing Bolsonaro in the second round, citing the concern for democracy, Tebet endorsed Lula.
Other members of her coalition like Cidadania endorsed Lula while the PSDB and Podemos remaining neutral. Of the former presidents and presidential candidates that supported her candidacy, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and José Serra, both former supporters of Lula supported his candidacy, while Michel Temer supported Bolsonaro.
She also spoke against gun violence in South America on an Instagram post in her profile and how Lula can get rid of it by disarming the population from gun ownership and make streets of Brazil safer, and overturning right-wing gun policies. However, with all her support and the reward of a ministry in the Lula government, many suggest that she is building a platform for a more successful run in 2026, representing a disaffected center.
Minister of Planning and Budget Tebet was announced as Minister of Planning on 27 December 2022, after André Lara Resende, a member of the transition team, rejected the position. "Investors had expected a market-friendly person to get the position, but markets will welcome Tebet," said analyst Lucas de Aragao of Arko Advice consultancy in Brasilia.
The position also grants Tebet the position of Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors of the World Bank.Board of Governors World Bank.
Choice of Ministry
After the 2022 election, it was widely considered that Tebet would be given a ministry, especially since she had not run for reelection in the Senate. Tebet's support for Lula, especially as a moderate candidate was seen as crucial to his victory in the narrowest Brazilian presidential election in history, where she won 4.9 million votes and the election was decided by 2.1 million.