While part of CDS – People's Party, he served as Member of the Assembly of the Republic from 2011 to 2013, and as Secretary of State for Tourism in Pedro Passos Coelho's first and second governments from 2013 to 2015.

[2] As Secretary of State for Tourism under Minister of Economy António Pires de Lima, he promoted deregulation of the sector.

[3] Citing lack of support from his party's leadership and refusing to run "just to oppose someone", Mesquita Nunes declined entering the race.

[5] After Rodrigues dos Santos succeeded in having the party structure approve a motion of confidence, by a slim margin, Mesquita Nunes gave up the leadership challenge.

[1] Mesquita Nunes publicly came out in an interview to the newspaper Expresso in 2018, saying he had not done so before because he found such an announcement unnecessary; while calling it as a private matter, he also said he had never made any attempt to conceal it, citing an incident during the campaign for the 2017 local elections in which one of his political campaign billboards in Covilhã was spray painted with the word "gay" and he specifically asked for it not to be taken down as it wasn't calumnious.