“Jeong Won-oh’s campaign materials lack Lee… It’s not in line with the spirit of the times.” “Why would I support a faction? I align with a president who performs well,” said Choi Min-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea on June 10, assessing the results of the June 3 local elections as “half a failure and half a victory.”
During an appearance on CBS radio’s ‘Park Seong-tae’s News Show,’ Choi stated, “The local elections can only be seen as both half a failure and half a success,” expressing her disappointment over the significant impact and disillusionment in Seoul.
However, Choi noted, “In the Seoul wide council proportional representation elections, the seats are divided 80 to 38 between opposing parties. Considering this, it’s not a complete defeat in Seoul.”
Regarding Democratic candidate Jeong Won-oh’s loss to newly elected Oh Se-hoon in the Seoul mayoral race, she commented, “Analyzing the 1% vote gap between the two could reveal why Jeong’s campaign turned out this way. One noticeable issue is the absence of the president in campaign materials.”
Choi pointed out that despite the regional grassroots sentiment not necessarily favoring the Democratic Party or reformists, there was a widespread feeling of wanting to support President Lee Jae-myung’s “Great Transformation of Korea.” She criticized the lack of the president’s photo in the campaign materials as being out of sync with the direction and spirit of the times.
Regarding speculation of competition between pro-Lee and pro-Cheong factions in the upcoming party convention, Choi responded, “I am labeled as pro-Lee, but why would I support a faction? I support a well-performing president over internal factionalism, indicating that those labeling me as pro-Cheong see me as a fool.”
When asked about being categorized within either the pro-Cheong or ‘pro-Kim Min-seok’ factions, she asserted, “I am neither. I will support whoever strongly endorses the one person, one vote policy.”