[1] Cunha previously served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alagoas for the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, before running a bid for the senate, noted by a striking independence from his party's coalition with the Alagoas politician and former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 accused of corruption.

Cunha ran for governor in 2022 as a part of the big-tent Brazil Union party, losing in the second round to Paulo Dantas, but beating out Collor.

[7] In February 2021, he was elected president of the Science, Technology, Innovation, Communication and IT Committee of the Federal Senate of Brazil for the 2021-2022 biennium.

[9] This strategy of neutrality was also employed by other Brazil Union candidates like Silvio Mendes in Piauí and ACM Neto in Bahia.

Only one governor was elected in the Northeast who did not support Lula in the second round: Pernambuco's Raquel Lyra On October 30, he was defeated in the dispute, having 47.67% of the votes against Dantas' 52.33%.