Donald Trump has gained a new ally in his attacks against diversity, immigration, and women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. On December 14, far-right politician José Antonio Kast, 59, won Chile’s presidential election after running a campaign that targeted undocumented migrants and promised a hard-line crackdown on crime.
Kast’s victory was celebrated by transnational groups that oppose women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, including Spain-based anti-LGBTQ+ CitizenGO; Hungary’s Center For Fundamental Rights, a propaganda arm of Viktor Orbán’s regime; and the U.S.-based Institute for Women’s Health and the Global Center for Human Rights. Brian Brown, co-founder of the U.S.-based National Organization for Marriage, also welcomed the result.
Although Kast sought to avoid publicly addressing some of these organizations’ core priorities during the campaign –such as abortion and same sex marriage–these entities see the president-elect of Chile as one of their own.
Kast Led Political Network for Values
In fact, Kast led from 2022 to 2024 the Political Network for Values (PNfV), a global lobbying platform that connects far-right actors from Latin America, Africa, Europe and the U.S., and advances a conservative Christian agenda by opposing LGBTQ+ rights, women’s bodily autonomy, and euthanasia, while defending a traditional family model.
CitizenGO posted a tweet celebrating Kast’s victory, describing him as “a conservative Catholic.” (Source:X).
In the runoff election, Kast won with 58 percent of the vote, defeating left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara, who received 42 percent. It was the first election in which voting was mandatory. The outcome signals a shift in Chile’s political direction, as Kast prepares to take over from outgoing left-wing President Gabriel Boric.
This was Kast’s third bid for the Chilean presidency, following his previous attempts in 2017 and 2021. He was defeated by Boric in his second run, after a surge in youth and female voter turnout. After that loss, Kast adjusted his campaign strategy in 2025, moving anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ+ issues to the background, instead emphasizing security and migration.
While seeking to avoid the issues that had cost him support in earlier elections, Kast offered a brief preview of his presidential agenda during the campaign by stating: “We’re going to talk about God again, we’re going to talk about the homeland again, and we’re going to talk about family again, because those are the values that have sustained the strength of our nation.”
Opposed to Women’s Rights, Divorce, and LGBTQ+ Rights
A Catholic and father of nine, Kast was first elected as a lawmaker in 2001. His political record includes rejecting abortion under any circumstances, including rape, and defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman. He also opposed a bill to legalize divorce in Chile in 2004, and led a campaign against morning-after pills in 2009.
The president-elect of Chile openly expressed his admiration for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose regime killed or forcibly disapeared thousands for political reasons, while tens of thousands more were tortured or imprisoned. In his 2017 presidential campaign, Kast said, “My name is José Antonio Kast, and I do proudly defend the work of the military government.” He also claimed, “if he [Pinochet] were alive he would vote for me.”
In the next election cycle, in 2021, the Associated Press revealed that Kast’s father, Michael Kast, served in the German Army during World War II and was a member of the Nazi Party, an assertion that the president-elect of Chile had previously rejected.
On the night of his victory, Kast was joined by figures from the international anti-rights movement. At Republican Party headquarters, he celebrated with Lola Velarde, the executive director of PNfV, and Vajk Farkas, the head of the Spanish office of the Orbán-aligned Center for Fundamental Rights.
Members of the Political Network for Values were present at Kast’s party headquarters on election night. (Source:X).
“You are an example to all the members and friends of our Network,” PNfV posted on social media after the results were announced, adding that they were “very grateful to God for having been eyewitnesses to a historic moment.”
Catalina Stubbe, director of Moms for Liberty, echoed the celebration, describing the election result as “huge.” “Very proud of President Kast’s team, family values always win,” she wrote. Moms for Liberty is a far-right advocacy group based in the U.S. that has consistently opposed protections for LGBTQ+ students and is known for pushing book bans.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also congratulated Kast, who received messages of support from key figures in the international far right, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; Argentine President Javier Milei; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; and the leader of Spain’s Vox party, Santiago Abascal.
Viktor Orbán congratulated Kast in a post on X. (Source:X).
This electoral victory is a significant political achievement for transnational, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-woman networks. Kast is a frequent speaker at summits organized by the Political Network for Values and has appeared at CPAC events in Latin America and Hungary.
Some of his allies have also sought to campaign on his behalf. According to the Chilean outlet El Ciudadano, CitizenGo allegedly intervened in the first round of the election by running out-of-period “illegal advertising” in support of Kast.
ADF’s early engagement with Kast
As early as 2017, Kast began working with the U.S.-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a powerhouse American legal organization that has pushed to eliminate access to contraception and abortion, and promoted the criminalization of sexual acts among consenting LGBTQ+ individuals, among other far right policies.
That same year, a manifesto known as the Mexico Declaration was launched. Signed by 670 lawmakers from 18 Latin American countries, the declaration opposed Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights resolutions that required states to amend their domestic laws on abortion-related issues, as well as those concerning “the right to life, the family, and freedom of expression.” Kast was one of the declaration’s promoters.
According to the Chilean outlet Ciper, the lobbying effort behind the Mexico Declaration received financial support from ADF. Ciper also reported that the ADF Academy—a training program linked to the organization—paid for Kast’s airfare and accommodation in Maui, Hawaii, so he could attend an event sponsored by the group.
Chilean Chamber of Deputies’ lobbying registry entry showing partial funding by ADF International for a trip taken by Deputy Stephan Schubert Rubio. (Source: Chilean Chamber of Deputies’ travel registry).
Recently, ADF International covered some of the travel or accommodation costs—without providing specific details—for Stephan Schubert Rubio, a lawmaker from Kast’s party, to attend the America’s Advocacy Forum held in Washington D.C. in August. This information was published on the Chilean Chamber of Deputies’ website, which regulates lobbying disclosures.
With Kast’s ascendency to the presidency, groups like ADF, PNfV, and others against LGBTQ+ and women’s rights have gained a powerful new advocate.
