Mecias de Jesus

Antonio Mecias Pereira de Jesus (born 8 February 1962) more commonly known as Mecias de Jesus is a federal senator of Brazil representing the state of Roraima. He previously served in the state legislature from 1995 to 2019.^[1]

Mecias de Jesus
de Jesus in 2019
Senator for Roraima
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2019
State Deputy for Roraima
In office 1 February 1995 – 31 January 2019
Personal details
Born	(1962-02-08) 8 February 1962 (age 63) Graça Aranha, Maranhão, Brazil
Political party	PRB (2006–)

Personal life

de Jesus was born in Graça Aranha.^[1] Prior to becoming a politician, Marcos Rogério worked as a financial adviser.^[1] In his youth he also worked as a shoeshine, farmer, waiter and gardener.^[2] His son Johnathan de Jesus is also a politician, being elected to the federal chamber of deputies in 2010.^[1] Unlike most PRB politicians who belong to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, de Jesus and his family belong to the Nova Vida Baptist church.^[3]

Political career

In 2017 de Jesus proposed a bill that would exempt churches from paying water, electricity, and telephone taxes in Roraima.^[4] The bill caused some controversy as Brazil is officially a secular state and was eventually not passed.

de Jesus is the president of the PRB party in the state of Roraima.^[2]

In the 2018 Brazilian general election de Jesus was elected to the federal senate with 85,366 votes.^[2] He was one of six new Evangelical members elected to the federal senate in that election.^[5]