The governor was directly elected again in the 1982 election. PDS and PMDB dominated, but unionism was back with PDT and PT. With the opposition divided, Jair Soares, supporter of the military regime, was elected governor. Since then, the voters of Rio Grande do Sul have elected their governors directly, with a two-round system. In the following decades, Alceu Collares was elected the first black governor of the state in 1990, Yeda Crusius became in 2006 the first woman to head the executive of Rio Grande do Sul, and Eduardo Leite, elected in 2018, was the first openly gay Brazilian governor.
