Evelyn Matthei, from the establishment conservative party PN, ran on a center-right platform, but Enríquez-Ominami's main opponent in the election was far-right José Antonio Kast, who advocated for strongly economically and socially right-wing policies. 

Kast's populist campaign gained a significant amount of momentum, especially with younger voters dissatisfied at many decades of dominance by the PS and PN. Franco Parisi, leader of the populist PDG, lost much of his support to Kast and won just 8% of the vote in the first round. 

On 4 September 2024, Enríquez-Ominami briefly fended off the world's far-right wave by narrowly winning the first round, with 38% of the vote to 33% for Kast and 12% for Matthei. During the second round campaign, Kast obtained the endorsements of Matthei and Parisi, allowing him to win the second round with 53.1% of the vote to 46.9% for Enríquez-Ominami. 

Kast and his cabinet were inaugurated on 3 November. During the first year of his presidency, Kast has lowered taxes for all Chileans who pay taxes, privatized several sectors of the economy, signed a free trade agreement with the United States under John Kasich, liberalized gun laws, and held a referendum on abortion that resulted in 51% of Chileans voting to ban it. 

Currently, public opinion polls show that Kast has approval ratings in the 40–50% range, with the upper and most of the middle classes approving of his policies while most of the working class does not. 

In 2024, Yasna Provoste, Chile's second consecutive female president, was term limited, and Marco Enríquez-Ominami ran as the government candidate in the presidential elections.