Thirty-seven-year-old former journalist and communist militant Manuela D’Ávila might just be the next vice president of Brazil. The ex-journalist and student leader forms a vital part of the Workers Party (PT) slate along with their presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, the political successor to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, currently in prison.

Despite D’Ávila’s relative youth, she already boasts an impressive political career as a former city councilor in Porto Alegre, state deputy, and federal deputy for Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. She has won every election she’s taken part in for her party, The Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), since 2005. Her rise to the leadership of the PCdoB could represent something of a left turn for the party, as it seeks to channel the energies of a new political generation.

In November 2017, the PCdoB nominated D’Ávila as their presidential candidate, but in August 2018 she dropped her candidacy after formalizing an alliance with the PT.