This page was updated on November 11
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.
The four leading candidates in an October 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 8.5% 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 equal to Kaiser’s share and higher than the rates for other frontrunners Kast and 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. This initiative 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
Johannes Kaiser
49, member of the lower house of Congress
Partido Nacional Libertario
“The first priority would be to take on crime … control the borders, and expel immigrants who are here illegally.”
HOW HE GOT HERE
An anti-establishment libertarian who rose to fame as a YouTuber, Kaiser is running for president for the first time. He has served in the Chamber of Deputies since 2022. Formerly a member of José Antonio Kast’s Partido Republicano, he later broke ranks and in 2024 founded the Partido Nacional Libertario, which was registered with Chile’s electoral service in March and has six members in the lower house.
WHY HE MIGHT WIN
As a relative newcomer to politics compared to the other leading candidates, Kaiser’s radical stances and outsider credentials may attract voters who are disenchanted with the establishment. His hardline proposals on security and immigration, two priority issues in this election, may appeal to Chileans whose top concern is crime. Some observers have noted that Kaiser performed well in recent debates. He has gained momentum in polls, rising since mid-October and overtaking third place from Matthei in some surveys.
WHY HE MIGHT LOSE
Kaiser is a polarizing candidate with a history of controversial statements, such as claiming that if elected, he would close the border with Bolivia, and comments in 2021 as congressman-elect questioning whether women should have the right to vote. Among the four frontrunners, polls indicate that Kaiser and Jara have the highest share of respondents who would not vote for them, and that Kaiser has the lowest level of name recognition at 70%.
WHO SUPPORTS HIM
His support base is concentrated among men, voters over 50 years old, and those living outside central Chile.
WHAT HE WOULD DO
In his government program, Kaiser promises to decrease public spending by 4.5-5% of GDP, reduce the number of ministries from 25 to 9, and partially or completely privatize the state-owned mining company Codelco. His plans include deporting undocumented migrants and their children, imposing penalties for entering Chile through unauthorized border crossings, and confining those who do so in camps until they are expelled from the country. Kaiser’s program critiques progressivism and “gender ideology,” and he has proposed introducing pensions for mothers, with increasing payments per additional child. He has said that during his presidency, Chile would leave the Escazú Agreement, the Paris Agreement, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
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 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. His polling performance has declined since mid-August.
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 63% of Chilean respondents in an October 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
72, 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 an October poll, the share of respondents who will vote or could consider voting for her (60%) was the highest among all candidates, and the share of respondents who would not vote for her (40%) was the lowest among all contenders.
WHY SHE MIGHT LOSE
Amid reshuffling of her campaign team, Matthei dropped in the polls earlier this year before climbing slightly in September, but declined throughout October, falling just behind Kaiser according to recent polling. Kast remains the right-wing frontrunner, and Kaiser has risen in polls in the last few weeks. Some conservative voters may prefer Kast’s or Kaiser’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, along with more than 100 center and left-wing political figures. 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.
