With Kim Min-seok winning the Democratic Party of Korea's touring primary in South Jeolla, Gwangju and North Jeolla, he moved closer to the "party leader" post to be announced at the convention on the 17th. In political circles, some said rights-holding members in the Honam region focused more on "who can run a more stable party-government relationship."
According to the primary results released by the party election commission right after the joint speech by candidates for party leader and supreme council on the afternoon of the 15th, Kim widened the gap by leading with 57.54% of the rights-holding members' vote, ahead of Jung Chung-rae with 32.65% and Song Young-gil with 9.81%.
The gap between Kim and Jung was 24.89 percentage points (p).
As Kim widened the margin, he heads into the capital region primary on the 16th from a favorable position. Until the Honam vote, the two candidates had been locked in a razor-thin race with a 1.48 percentage-point gap, but in Honam—home to 33% of all rights-holding members—Kim secured a firm foothold with a majority vote, adding momentum to the "inevitability" narrative.
Right after the results were announced, Kim wrote on his Facebook page that "the strong support from Honam reflects a yearning for democracy and leapfrogging growth, and I know it is support and encouragement for the Lee Jae-myung administration."
He added, "I bow my head in thanks and, with humility, humility, humility, will give my all to the end and run desperately only for national governance success."
By contrast, Jung, who had aimed to use a comeback in Honam as a springboard to "final victory," is now left to pin hopes on the capital region results, public opinion polls and the preferential voting system.
In particular, where the votes of Seoul and Gyeonggi will go appears to be the biggest variable. The capital region generally has many hardline members active online, which some interpret as favorable to Jung, but in Gyeonggi, pro-Lee Jae-myung lawmakers are said to be firmly backing Kim in an organized way, making it hard to predict the outcome.
The next leadership will be chosen by combining 70% from rights-holding members' votes and 30% from a general public poll. In recent polls, Kim led among Democratic Party supporters, but among all respondents, Jung showed a trend of leading Kim.
Right after the results were announced that day, Jung said, "Just as Gwangju protected South Korea's democracy, I respect the choice and judgment of Honam rights-holding members and will be more mindful."
Asked by reporters that "today's gap feels larger than expected," Jung said, "I am always grateful for what rights-holding members give. I am grateful when they give a lot and grateful when they give less," adding, "I will do my best in tomorrow's capital region primary."
Meanwhile, the rankings for the supreme council race, with eight candidates running, were shaken by the Honam results that day.
Candidate Choi Min-hee, with 150,061 votes (17.33%) on a cumulative basis, lost first place to lawmaker Park Sun-won, who secured 159,462 votes (17.7%).
They were followed by candidate Seo Mi-hwa with 140,978 votes (15.65%), Kim Yong with 118,702 votes (13.18%), and Han Min-su with 114,407 votes (12.7%).
The Democratic Party is set to continue the touring primary on the 16th in the capital region, which has the largest number of rights-holding members (about 590,000). The final winner will be decided at the party convention on the 17th at the Daejeon Convention Center.