A feisty and little-known senator has emerged as a kingmaker in Brazil’s very close presidential election.

Many Brazilians first saw Simone Tebet, a lawyer and university professor, when she took the stage for the campaign’s first televised debate on the evening of August 29, alongside right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and left-wing icon and ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

And surprisingly, Tebet made a strong impression.

When Bolsonaro once insulted a journalist who was asking questions at the debate, the senator jumped to her defense, pointing a finger at the president and saying in a firm voice, “I’m not afraid of him.”

Tebet, 52, took third place in the first ballot with four percent of the vote, well behind Lula, who received 48 percent, and Bolsonaro with 43 percent.

But her share of the pie is 4.9 million votes – and the difference between the top two was 6.1 million.

Tebet immediately became an advertising candidate. And she supported Lula.

Tebet’s candidacy was organized by centrist parties and backed by part of the Brazilian establishment in order to mitigate the polarization caused by far-right President Bolsonaro and the left-wing hero of the working class and poor, Lula, of the Workers Party.

Tebet comes from the 125,000-inhabitant town of Tres Lagoas, where she was mayor from 2005 to 2010. It is located in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul, whose economy is based on agribusiness.

Tebet is married to a politician from her state and they have two daughters. She is Catholic and describes herself as a feminist.

Tebet played a prominent role on a congressional committee examining the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. And while on that panel, she loudly clashed with Bolsonaro allies.

Tebet was also the first woman to head the Constitutional and Judiciary Committee of the Brazilian Senate, which is considered the most important body in the chamber.

But her biggest leap of fame came with her presidential bid, which was touted as a third way between right and left.

Tebet managed to “fill an empty lagoon,” said Marco Antonio Teixeira, a professor of political science at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

She was successful because “she presented herself as a real third option, strong in her criticism of Bolsonaro and the Labor Party in a balanced way and not just looking for confrontation,” Teixeira said.

In the presidential debates, she challenged Bolsonaro and urged him to show respect for women; The President has a penchant for statements that are seen as sexist.

This helped Tebet win third place from centre-left candidate Ciro Gomes, who polls say would take that spot.

Halfway through Bolsonaro’s term, Tebet backed his government with 86 percent of the votes cast in the Senate, including one that extended gun-carrying rights to land outside rural properties, according to investigative news outlet Agencia Publica.

Tebet owns three estates, one of which is on land claimed by indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul.

She broke with Bolsonaro after joining the congressional commission investigating the pandemic that has killed more than 680,000 people in Brazil.

During the campaign for the first round of presidential elections, Tebet pledged to make transparent the vast sums of money managed by Congress, boost spending on science and technology, and provide scholarships for middle school students to prevent school dropouts.

Now that analysts are saying Lula needs to move toward the center to attract new supporters, Tebet – who has said Brazil is conservative and unwilling to legalize abortion – is an important figure to have on his side.

Last week, she officially endorsed Lula in the Oct. 30 runoff, while denying that the gesture meant she had given up trying to create a third path in Brazilian politics.

However, Tebet’s party, dubbed the Brazilian Democratic Movement, chose to remain neutral in the race between Bolsonaro and Lula.

“What’s at stake is bigger than any of us,” she said.

Tebet said she will vote for Lula because of his “commitment to democracy and the constitution,” which she doesn’t see in Bolsonaro.

But she slammed Lula, who is said to have lifted millions of people out of poverty during his 2003-2010 rule, for not actually “looking in the rear-view mirror” and making new suggestions about how he would govern when he returns the power comes

“Tebet speaks to agribusiness and women much more directly than Lula,” Teixeira said.

It could attract centrist Lula voters who are fed up with tensions over polarization between Bolsonaro and Lula, he added.

Brazilian press reports suggest Tebet could become a minister in Lula’s government if he wins. Tebet has denied being interested in such a job.