Matheus Cavalcanti Pestana is a PhD candidate and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Institute of Social and Political Studies at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (IESP-Uerj). He teaches Introduction to Data Science at FGV Comunicação and works as a Data Scientist at Quaest Consultoria e Pesquisa. He is also a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Religion (ISER). His research interests include party competition and strategy in electoral autocracies, neural networks, the mobilization of religious identity in political campaigns, and the spread of hate speech on social media.