Júlio Prestes

Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque (; 15 March 1882 – 9 February 1946) was a Brazilian poet, lawyer and politician. He was the last elected President of Brazil of the period known as the Old Republic, but never took office because the government was overthrown in the Revolution of 1930. Prestes was the only politician to be elected President of Brazil and then impeded from taking office.

Career Prestes graduated with a law degree from the Law School of São Paulo (today the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo) in 1906. He married Alice Viana and had three children with her.

He started his political career in 1909, when he was elected State Representative in São Paulo by the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP). He was re-elected several times until 1923, and became noted for his defense of public employees in São Paulo.

As a State Representative, he introduced legislation that created the Court of Auditors of São Paulo and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnology of the University of São Paulo. He was the author of the law that incorporated the Sorocabana Railroad in the São Paulo State patrimony.

In the São Paulo Revolt of 1924, Prestes fought on the Coluna Sul, with Ataliba Leonel and Washington Luís, expelling the rebels of the region of Sorocaba. That same year he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

After the death of then state president Carlos de Campos on 27 April 1927, and the resignation of the state vice president , new elections for the office were held and won by Prestes. He was the thirteenth elected president of the state of São Paulo, serving from 17 July 1927 to 21 May 1930, and was succeeded by his vice-president due to Prestes' candidacy for the presidency of the Republic.

Prestes was elected president of Brazil on 1 March 1930. He also became the second Brazilian featured on the cover of Time magazine. He was also the last person born in São Paulo to be elected president until the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018.

Prestes would ultimately never took office, because Washington Luís, the then-president of Brazil, was overthrown on 24 October by the Revolution of 1930. Getúlio Vargas, the runner-up in that election, would take office instead, ruling until 1945.

Prestes died on 9 February 1946, in São Paulo, at the age of 63.