A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost to register as a candidate.

José Levy Fidelix da Cruz was a Brazilian conservative politician, businessman, and journalist. He was the founder of the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (PRTB) and ran for president of Brazil in the elections of 2010 and 2014. He was particularly known in Brazil for his promise of building a bullet train system connecting São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and for his controversial declarations about homosexuals during a political debate in 2014. Also known for being a perennial candidate, he ran for several political posts but never won one. Fidelix died on 23 April 2021 due to COVID-19 complications.