Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff until recently appeared to be cruising toward re-election in October but she now finds herself in a tight race as an already sluggish economy takes a turn for the worse.
Economic growth, slow for most of her term, looks even less promising this year with economists expecting a contraction in the second quarter.
Inflation is running at just over 6.5 percent and employment figures, long one of the bright spots in Latin America's biggest economy, recently began to show trouble. Industrial output has slumped for the last three months and is on track to shrink more the 1 percent this year, prompting some manufacturers to start cutting jobs.