President Jair Bolsonaro reached the runoff stage of the presidential race emboldened by an electoral performance (over 43 percent of the vote) that eclipsed what most pollsters had forecast, but also facing an uphill battle to avoid becoming the first sitting Brazilian president to fail to win re-election. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his challenger, obtained over 48 percent of the first-round votes and has far less terrain to cover in order to win a majority in the runoff.
But Mr. Bolsonaro is stacking the deck in his favor by using his control of the public purse to …