Jorginho Mello
Jorginho dos Santos Mello is a Brazilian politician, member of the Liberal Party. He is the incumbent Governor of Santa Catarina and had served as Senator from 2019 to 2022. He resigned to run for the Santa Catarina gubernatorial election|state governorship], being replaced by his substitute Ivete da Silveira. Mello is the Liberal Party state president.
Career
Mello was born in Ibicaré, Santa Catarina before moving 20 kilometers away to Herval d'Oeste as a child.Mello had served as state representative in the Legislative Assembly 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Legislatures He was later elected for the Chamber of Deputies for the 54th and 55th Legislature of [the National Congress|55th] Legislatures, representing the state in the National Congress lower house.
He voted for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. During the Michel Temer administration, Mello voted in favor of the Constitutional Amendment of the Public Expenditure Cap. In April 2017, he was favorable to the Labour Reform. In August, he voted to open an investigation against president Temer.
In the 2018 election, Mello was elected for the Federal Senate for Santa Catarina, gaining 1,179,757 votes, and winning opponents such as then senator Paulo Bauer and former governor Raimundo Colombo.
In 2019, president Jair Bolsonaro signed Complementary Law no. 167, which creates the Simple Credit Company, after amendments suggested by Mello.
In the 2022 election, Mello was elected Governor of Santa Catarina on the second round, gaining 2,983,949 votes, being the highest percentage in state elections in that year.