later become the statewide, then national, president of the party. In 1947, Getúlio Vargas convinced Goulart to run for a seat in the state assembly. He was elected with 4,150 votes, becoming the fifth-most of 23 deputies. He received more votes than had his future brother-in-law Leonel Brizola, another rising star of the PTB, who was married to Goulart's sister Neusa until her death in 1993. Goulart was not an active member of the assembly, only discoursing once on the defensive interests of small cattle farmers in São Borja. He soon became a confidant and political protégé of Vargas, becoming one of the party members who most insistently urged him to launch a presidential candidacy for the 1950 elections. On 18 April 1950, Goulart launched Vargas's candidacy for president and, in the next day, a birthday party was held for the former president at Granja São Vicente, which was owned by Goulart. In 1950, Goulart was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He received 39,832 votes, second-most in the PTB in Rio Grande do Sul, and took office as a deputy in February 1951. He soon became secretary of the interior and a justice in the administration of Governor Ernesto Dornelles. During his time as secretary, which lasted until 7 March 1952, Goulart restructured the prison system to improve the living conditions of prisoners. He later resigned his job as secretary, at the request of Vargas, to help the president with a political deadlock at the ministry of labor, using his influence on the labor-union movement. Minister of Labor In 1953, after becoming aggravated with the deadlock, Vargas appointed Goulart minister of labor. The Vargas administration was in a deep crisis; the workers, unsatisfied with their low wages, were promoting strikes, and the right-wing party National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional – UDN) was mobilizing a coup d'état among the mass media, the upper-middle class, and the military forces. As he took office, Goulart replied to accusations from several newspapers, including The New York Times. As minister of labor, Goulart held the first Brazilian Congress of Social Security. He signed a series of decrees favoring social security, such as housing financing, regulation of loans by the Institute of Retirement and Pensions of Bank Employees (Instituto de Aposentadoria e Pensões dos Bancários – IAPB), and recognizing the employees of the Audit Committee of the Institute of Retirement and Pensions of Industry