On November 16, Chileans will vote for president, 23 Senators and all 155 seats in the lower house of Congress. If no presidential candidate secures an absolute majority, the two leading contenders will head to a runoff on December 14. The new president will take office on March 11.
Crime, immigration and unemployment are among Chileans’ top concerns. Voting is mandatory in this election, and approximately 15.8 million people are now registered to vote. This will likely lead to a significantly higher participation rate than in 2021, when 7.1 million citizens cast their ballots in the first round. Chile’s constitution prohibits consecutive presidential terms, and President Gabriel Boric is not up for reelection.
Candidates polling over 15% in a September Cadem Plaza Pública survey are included below in alphabetical order by last name. AQ asked a dozen nonpartisan experts on Chile to help us identify where each candidate stands on two spectrums: left versus right on economic matters, and personalistic versus institutionalist on leadership style. We’ve published the averages of their responses, with a caveat: Platforms evolve, and so do candidates. We will occasionally update this page to reflect developments in the campaigns.
Jeannette Jara
51, former labor minister
Partido Comunista de Chile
“I come from the real Chile. I am not one of those people who were born into the elite.”
HOW SHE GOT HERE
Jara had a relatively low public profile before serving in Boric’s Cabinet from March 2022 to April 2025. She has been a member of the Communist Party since the age of 14, and was a student and union leader. During former President Michelle Bachelet’s second term, Jara served as undersecretary of social security (2016-18). Jara was the surprise winner of June’s left-wing primary, securing 60% of the vote.
WHY SHE MIGHT WIN
Jara has emphasized her working-class origins, which may resonate with voters who perceive politics as elitist. Her ministerial portfolio covered areas where the Boric administration scored legislative victories: a minimum wage increase, a reduction in the workweek from 45 to 40 hours, and a long-awaited pension reform. Since her primary victory in June, she has pivoted to the center, backtracking on previous positions such as a proposal to nationalize copper and comments made in April about Cuba. Jara later clarified that she thinks the island nation is not a democracy.
WHY SHE MIGHT LOSE
Her longstanding ties to the Communist Party and association with Boric, whose approval ratings have been in the 30% range for most of 2025, might alienate voters. Many are in an anti-incumbent mood faced with economic stagnation and an 8.6% unemployment rate. Voters may conclude a conservative candidate is better positioned to address crime and immigration, which polls show are Chileans’ leading concerns. Polls also indicate that the share of respondents who would not vote for Jara is higher than the rates for fellow frontrunners José Antonio Kast and Evelyn Matthei.
WHO SUPPORTS HER
Jara is likely to receive support from Boric’s voter base, and her Unidad por Chile coalition includes eight parties ranging from the left to the center-left. The Christian Democratic Party has also endorsed her.
WHAT SHE WOULD DO
Jara’s program promises to introduce a minimum income of $780 per month through gradual minimum wage increases, cash transfers to workers, and subsidies for small businesses. The program would carry an estimated cost of $300 million, according to her economic advisor. She has committed to modernizing the police, building five new prisons by 2033, and exercising presidential power to deploy the armed forces to protect Chile’s borders. Jara has stated that Venezuela has an authoritarian regime, and that if elected, she would “maintain the appropriate diplomatic relations” with Presidents Donald Trump and Javier Milei.
IDEOLOGY
José Antonio Kast
59, former member of the lower house of Congress
Partido Republicano
“Don’t be fooled: The upcoming election is about change or continuity. This administration has been a complete failure, and there is nothing to salvage.”
HOW HE GOT HERE
Kast is running for president for the third time. He earned 7.9% of the vote in 2017 and won the first round in 2021, but lost to Boric in the runoff. A lawyer by training, Kast served in Congress from 2002-18. He left the right-wing Unión Demócrata Independiente party in 2016 and founded his own ultra-conservative party in 2019. Kast was a vocal opponent of Chile’s left-led constitutional rewrite effort in 2022, and his Partido Republicano had the largest representation on a council that proposed a right-wing constitution in 2023, which voters also rejected by referendum.
WHY HE MIGHT WIN
Kast’s hardline security and immigration policies may gather more support amid rising migration and perceptions that crime has increased recently. Although Chile’s homicide rate has declined since 2022, it is twice the rate seen a decade ago and other crimes are also high. Kast has spoken in favor of the security model promoted by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, a popular figure in Chile. Having consistently campaigned throughout the country in recent years, Kast has high name recognition and presents himself as a stark contrast to Boric.
WHY HE MIGHT LOSE
Kast and fellow conservative Johannes Kaiser declined to participate in a primary with Chile’s right-wing coalition (whose candidate is Evelyn Matthei), setting up a splintered opposition vote. More moderate voters may prefer to cast their ballots for Matthei, while the libertarian Kaiser may siphon off some votes from Kast.
WHO SUPPORTS HIM
Those seeking a radical change from the Boric administration may cast their ballots for Kast, along with those who share Kast’s conservative social positions. He stands to attract voters whose primary concern is crime and violence, which applied to 64% of Chilean respondents in an August Ipsos survey. Compared to Matthei, Kast’s support base includes more men, Evangelicals, younger voters, and those living in the south of the country.
WHAT HE WOULD DO
Kast’s government program describes a security, economic and social “emergency.” He proposes closing borders to undocumented migrants and criminalizing irregular migration, as well as building border ditches and walls. Kast promises to expand and modernize Chile’s prison infrastructure, including maximum-security facilities. His program sets out plans to increase the annual GDP growth rate to 4% (the IMF forecasts a 2% economic expansion for this year), reduce the corporate tax rate, and cut public spending by $6 billion over the first 18 months of his administration.
IDEOLOGY
Evelyn Matthei
71, former Providencia mayor
Unión Demócrata Independiente
“Chile needs us to work as one team. Let’s put political fights aside and focus on the people: health, safety and the future.”
HOW SHE GOT HERE
This is the second presidential bid for Matthei, a political veteran. In 2013, she won 25% of the vote in the first round and lost to former President Michelle Bachelet in the runoff. Matthei served two terms in the lower house of Congress and resigned from her second Senate term in 2011 to serve as labor minister for part of former President Sebastián Piñera’s first term. She was most recently a two-term mayor of the Providencia district in Santiago.
WHY SHE MIGHT WIN
Matthei is a more moderate right-wing candidate than Kast, and stands to attract support from centrist or center-left voters. The only economist among the frontrunners, she is known for negotiating across the aisle. In a recent poll, the share of respondents who will or could eventually vote for her (51%) is higher than for Jara (34%) and Kast (44%), and the share of respondents who would not vote for her (41%) is the lowest among all candidates.
WHY SHE MIGHT LOSE
Amid reshuffling of her campaign team, Matthei dropped in the polls earlier this year but climbed slightly in September. However, there may not be enough time left to gain on Kast, who remains the right-wing frontrunner. Some conservative voters may prefer Kast’s more direct style of promising rapid change to Matthei’s steadier, governance-focused approach.
WHO SUPPORTS HER
Matthei is backed by two centrist parties, one of which is also part of her traditional right-wing coalition. Sixteen of 89 former ministers from the Concertación, the center-left coalition that held the presidency between 1990 and 2010, have endorsed her. Compared to Kast, Matthei attracts more support among women, people over 45, voters with higher income and education levels, and those living in the Santiago metropolitan region.
WHAT SHE WOULD DO
Matthei’s government program describes security as her top priority, and commits to a $2.5 billion investment in police personnel, equipment, technology, and prevention and reintegration programs. She promises to build five new prisons (three of them high-security), expel 3,000 foreigners convicted of crimes, establish a military border police, and install physical barriers on major clandestine entry routes. Matthei aims to reach 4% GDP growth by the end of her term, lower the corporate tax rate, create 1 million formal jobs, and cut $8 billion in “misallocated spending.” On foreign policy, she notes that Chile will “maintain a position of strategic autonomy” while “advocating for an integrated and open economic order and active multilateralism.”
IDEOLOGY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emilie Sweigart
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSweigart is an editor at Americas Quarterly and a policy manager at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Chile’s Right Is Gaining Momentum
Polls show conservative candidate José Antonio Kast leading in the November 16 presidential election.
