In October 2025, influencer pastor Dante Gebel, who fills stadiums and leads one of the most attended evangelical churches in the United States, said that does not rule out being president from Argentina. And some are already encouraged to propose him as a candidatein addition to the fact that his current show is called “PresiDante”. How far away is this possibility?
For now, in the Argentine Congress 9 legislators who can be considered part of the evangelical Protestant community in the country already occupy seats. Two of them are in the Senate (Nadia Márquez and Vilma Bedia), while 7 belong to the Chamber of Deputies: Maira Frías, Miguel Rodríguez, Mónica Becerra, Andrea Vera, Santiago Pauli, María Celeste Ponce and Lourdes Arrieta.
What do they have in common and what agenda will they promote?
A survey carried out by the Federal Network of Journalism and Innovation -which make up Ruido, ADNSUR, Aire de Santa Fe, Chequeado, Corrientes al Día and Todo Jujuy- investigated the profiles and sent questionnaires that only 3 of the 9 representatives (Vera, Ponce and Becerra) declined to answer.
From these data it can be stated that:
1) The majority (6 of 9) entered politics through La Libertad Avanza, and all now belong to that force.
2) None will promote – at least they are not thinking about it for now – their own agenda, but will prioritize supporting Javier Milei’s agenda.
3) There is no formal communication – at least it is not admitted – between the 9 representatives, nor projects that they plan together, although there may be affinities and dialogues between some. In this regard, representative Lourdes Arrieta – she entered with La Libertad Avanza, but left the bloc – warned Noise: “If you get together to pray or have a relationship with other brothers in Christ, Karina (Milei) will make the cross for you and forget about having a position on a list.”
Who is who
Andrea Vera (Buenos Aires)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
was born on July 16, 1994. She is the daughter of Ramón “El Nene” Veraevangelist of Peronist origin with a strong presence in the municipality of Moreno, who was elected provincial deputy for LLA on September 7.
In your networking biographydescribes herself as “Christian” and quotes Maccabees 3:19: “In a battle, victory does not depend on the number of soldiers, but on the forces that come from heaven.” This is the same phrase that President Milei often quotes in his speeches.
In 2023, she was a candidate for mayor of Moreno for LLA, where came second. During the campaign there were complaints from neighbors who said they had been treated by Vera in health operations. At that time, the Austral University responded a request from councilor of Unión por la Patria, Lucas Franco, indicating that Vera owed 2 subjects to graduate from a degree in Medicine. Finally, in December 2024, Vera qualified as a doctor, according to the Graduate Registry of the Secretariat of University Policies of the Nation.
María Celeste Ponce (Córdoba)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
Daughter of a radical family from Huinca Renancó, in the extreme south of Córdoba, she has been a national deputy since 2023. received as a lawyer at 37 years old at Siglo 21 University.
As he was able to reconstruct Noisein the pandemic, as part of that movement reactive to confinement, Ponce joined Milei’s live broadcasts and began to become interested in anarcho-capitalism. In 2022 she created the group “Libertarian Pumas” and joined Lilia Lemoine’s space. Coinciding with the president’s official trip to Israel in June 2025, Ponce was baptized in the Jordan River.
Until now he has shown no interest in the so-called “evangelical agenda.” Your main legislative reference is Jair Bolsonaro. He asked the Chamber of Deputies to “repudiate” the “political persecution” against the former president of Brazil.
Maira Frías (Chubut)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
She lives in Comodoro Rivadavia, she is 38 years old and she is a national representative for LLA. With extremely low profile and without having given almost any interview during the campaign, he is one of the “new” faces of politics and is part of the movement “Born to Rule“This space was born in 2018 with the aim of training faithful from different evangelical congregations to get involved in public and political life.
As he was able to reconstruct ADNSURFrías is a native of Chaco and graduated as a lawyer from the National University of the Northeast, where she specialized in Inheritance Law. More than a decade ago she settled in Comodoro Rivadavia with her husband. He has a daughter and shares the Christian faith with his family. His approach to evangelism happened in 2006, when he was at university. In March 2024, Frías was appointed director of ANSES.
Vilma Bedia (Jujuy)
Credit: Senate of the Nation.
National senator since 2023. She was born on November 27, 1961 in San Salvador de Jujuy. During the pandemic, she reported that she felt a strong impact upon seeing widespread isolation, which led her to pay attention to Milei’s speeches. He has been active in that space since 2022 and in the 2023 elections won the seat in the Senate with LLA. She aspires to be governor of her province.
In March 2024, She was accused of hiring 15 relatives for the Upper House. After the scandal he had to “dishire” 6 relatives.
consulted by All Jujuysaid that at the age of 22 he began his spiritual path looking for answers in the Bible. “I joined when I was an unemployed teacher and began giving talks with neighbors and in family homes to share the word of God,” she said. For her, the Gospel is a source of truth and freedom.
Lourdes Arrieta (Mendoza)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
She is 32 years old, she was born in San Juan but has lived in Mendoza since she was little. She has a degree in Social Communication and a national broadcaster. She has been evangelical since she was little. In 2020 he joined the Libertarian Party. In the 2023 general elections he ranked third on the LLA list, and won the seat in Deputies.
Without a political career, territory or apparatus, he approached the president of the lower house, Martín Menem, and the Secretary General, Karina Milei. At first she was in charge of setting up the Libertarian Party in Mendoza, and the local PAMI.
The first scandals came when the head of PAMI Mendoza He denounced Arrieta for forcing him to resign for not complying with the adjustment and dismissal orders that she demanded. At the national level she was criticized after visiting repressors of the last dictatorship, and then she they leaked audios from a discussion of his in the LLA bloc in Congress. In August 2024, he resigned from LLA and put together the “Coherence” bloc.
Nadia Márquez (Neuquén)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
In December 2023 she became a national representative for LLA, but left banking to join the Senate. She is a pastor of the Evangelical Baptist Church “Jesus is King”, like her husband, Matías Riffo, with whom she has 3 children. His father, Hugo Márquez, is part of the board of directors of the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches.
Márquez studied Law. Before getting involved in politics he worked in a private studio; She was secretary of the Ethics Court of the Neuquén Bar Association and a teacher.
He decided to enter party politics in 2018, according to Marquez. ADNSUR. In 2019 he was a councilor of Neuquén with an internal list of the Neuquén Popular Movement. In 2023 she was elected provincial deputy for the same space, but she did not take office because she joined LLA and launched her national candidacy. Although he is in contact with the rest of the evangelical legislators, Márquez does not promote the existence of a legislative bloc.
Monica Becerra (San Luis)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
She is a public accountant graduated from the National University of San Luis. Originally from Villa Mercedes, she built her political career on social work. At 51 years old and a mother of 2 children, her vocation was born in community spaces linked to the Church, where the current governor Claudio Poggi learned about her work and the invited to join the nascent Avanzar party.
Becerra professes the evangelical Christian religion, which he embraced when he grew up since his family is Catholic. Her first elective position came in 2019, as a provincial representative for the Pedernera Department. Re-elected in 2023, surprised by resigning from his bench to take over as Minister of Human Development for Poggi’s second term.
In 2025, he received the LLA proposal to head the list of national deputies, which generated resistance in other libertarian sectors of the province and ended the partisan intervention. Becerra defines himself as an “instrument of the President.”
Jorge Pauli (Tierra del Fuego)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
Since 2023 he has been a national deputy. His father Héctor Pauli and his mother, Andrea Almirón, are pastors and spiritual leaders of the “There is life in Jesus” Church, in Río Grande. Santiago trained as a university teacher. In 2017, at age 30, he became one of the founders of the Libertarian Party in the province.
After an activity in Río Grande to which Milei himself was invited, the party was consolidated and with the “United Republicans” seal it began to act in politics. In the 2023 national elections Pauli headed the list of candidates for national deputies.
In October 2025, he became involved in a controversy when they denounced who asked his employees for part of their salary for party expenses.
Pauli prefers not to link religion with politics, and maintains that the arrival of evangelicals in public office is only a “statistical effect” resulting from the number of parishioners. “It is true that with Milei new politicians appeared and that opened doors, but there is a lot of prejudice with evangelical churches,” he told Noise.
Miguel Rodríguez (Tierra del Fuego)
Credit: Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
He was born 39 years ago in the town of Comandante Andresito, 40 kilometers from the Iguazú Falls. He lived in Misiones until 9 years ago. But in 2014 he decided to change his life and settled in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, a province for which he has just been named national deputy.
Was employee of electronic factories and then non-commissioned officer of the Provincial Police. He began to attend the Evangelical Church “There is life in Jesus”, where he met several of his fellow libertarians, including the current deputy Santiago Pauli. In 2016, the idea of forming the Libertarian Party was born and in 2018 he met Milei. After the LLA came to power, he was appointed provincial delegate of the National Migration Directorate.
Married to Nancy Ramos, father of 3 children, and a Boca fan, Rodríguez became a candidate for deputy in October without being a public figure on Fuegian soil. “I am in favor of all the measures of this national government,” he answered. on Radio LED when they asked him if he would support the installation of “a military base with the collaboration of USA”.
How the phenomenon and the evangelical agenda grew in Argentina
“The evangelical population in Argentina has existed for almost 200 years. Since the return of democracy, they gained visibility because they began to occupy public spaces, appropriating the democratic discourse, claiming in different ways their right to exist and be visible in this Catholic-centric society,” he analyzed for Noise Melisa Sánchez, Conicet scholarship holder specialized in power relations within Christian-evangelical spaces.
“Unlike the paradigmatic case of Brazil, It is not apparent that their candidacies respond to a strategy planned in detail by churches.evangelical organizations and/or federations,” highlighted Marcos Carbonelli, doctor in Social Sciences (UBA) and assistant researcher at Conicet.
The specialist in evangelical movements added that “it is possible to conjecture that in this ‘evangelical landing’ personal interest and the ‘renewal of the political’ are linked with the window of opportunity configured by the emergence of LLA and the Milei phenomenon.”
This content is part of the Federal Network of Journalism and Innovation (RPI)alliance promoted by Checked which unites media from 5 regions of the country to contribute to the expansion of innovative journalism and counteract information deserts.
