Jacob Reidhead joins Taiwan Talks to discuss what South Korea's local-election results reveal about party leadership and voter judgment.
Reading the local-election results
For my first appearance on Taiwan Talks, I discussed what South Korea’s 2026 local-election results may reveal about party leadership and voter judgment.
I argued that the victories by Oh Se-hoon in Seoul and Han Dong-hoon in Busan were less a broad referendum on President Lee and the Democratic Party than a judgment on Jang Dong-hyeok and the People Power Party’s current leadership. Local results still speak to national politics, but they do so through candidate selection, party organization, and the leadership choices voters encounter in particular races.
Party organization behind the headlines
The conversation connects with the lab’s wider interest in how parties manage leaders and candidates across levels of government. Election returns are visible outcomes; behind them are organizational decisions about nominations, regional strategy, leadership signals, and the relationship between national and local party structures.
The television segment is a concise interpretation rather than a comprehensive election study. Watch the full discussion at TaiwanPlus.