After a slugfest, candidate Kim Min-seok cornered candidate Jung Chung-rae and clinched the Democratic Party of Korea chair. But he failed to secure a majority in the first round of voting, and in the simultaneous Supreme Council vote, the pro-Jung Chung-rae faction (pro-Jung) won more seats than the pro-Lee Jae-myung faction (pro-Lee), drawing assessments of a "half victory." The decline in President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating compared with the early days of the term is also a burden for Chair Kim.
On the 17th, in the Democratic Party's 3rd regular national convention leadership election, Chair Kim won after a preference vote with 54.08% of the ballots, defeating candidate Jung Chung-rae (45.92%). Still, some said Jung performed better than expected, noting Kim's failure to win a majority in the first round.
This chair election drew attention as a head-to-head between candidate Kim, President Lee Jae-myung's governing partner, and candidate Jung, the first ruling party leader under the Lee administration. From the early days of the race, both camps did not shy away from negative attacks, turning it into a slugfest. It was a direct clash between the pro-Lee faction calling for stability and the pro-Jung faction pushing reform.
Chair Kim inherits the line of President Lee, who espouses centrist pragmatism, while candidate Jung carries a strong image as a hard-line reformist. The policy divide spilled into debates over responsibility for the June 3 local election loss in the Seoul mayoral race and over "legitimate succession," escalating the fight between the two sides into a battle of nerves.
With Chair Kim's victory, the fight between the pro-Lee and pro-Jung camps has, for now, been wrapped up, but with many pro-Jung figures entering the party leadership, embers remain. Unlike the chair race, the Supreme Council election is widely seen as a sweeping win for the pro-Jung camp. For the "senior Supreme Council member" post awarded to the top vote-getter, pro-Jung candidate Choi Min-hee faced pro-Lee candidate Park Sun-won, and Choi comfortably took first place.
In particular, for the fifth and final Supreme Council seat, pro-Jung candidates Lee Sung-yoon and Han Min-soo and pro-Lee candidate Kim Yong fought a fierce last-minute battle for position, and pro-Jung's Lee Sung-yoon and Han Min-soo edged out Kim Yong. Kim Yong, a former deputy head at the Democracy Research Institute, is considered one of President Lee Jae-myung's closest confidants among the pro-Lee core. With Kim failing even to secure fifth place in the Supreme Council race and losing, some in political circles are calling it the biggest upset of this convention.
Supreme Council members Choi Min-hee, Lee Sung-yoon, and Han Min-soo, who identified as "Team Jung Chung-rae," may well voice different views under Chair Kim Min-seok's leadership. The key will be whether the party can mend the rift between the pro-Lee and pro-Jung camps, which escalated to a "psychological split" during the campaign. A two-term Democratic Party lawmaker said, "Even when Choi Min-hee was a lawmaker, it was hard to predict what she would say. Now that she is the senior Supreme Council member, we may have to enter each Supreme Council meeting on edge."
External factors are not easy for Chair Kim, either. Unlike the early term when President Lee Jae-myung's approval neared 70%, it has sunk into the 40% range. Along with healing the party's internal strife, Kim must find a way to lift support for the Lee administration.
A possible Seoul mayoral by-election next year is also an issue. With negative views high on the Lee administration's real estate policy, many say the Democratic Party would find it hard to win even if the Seoul mayoral race were rerun. That is why, at the Democratic Party's general meeting of lawmakers on the 13th, some even said, "At this rate, we will crash and burn."
A political source said, "Even if the Seoul mayoral election is rerun next year, the Democratic Party's chances of winning are likely to shrink," adding, "An ironic situation could arise in which Chair Kim Min-seok, who had spoken of responsibility for the Seoul mayoral defeat in this local election, would have to bear that responsibility." Chair Kim has already said he will seek a vote of confidence based on the results of the April by-election next year.
Chair Kim also faces the task of wrapping up demands for judicial reform, which had been the base of support for candidate Jung Chung-rae. Kim must resolve controversies over the special counsel bill on dismissal of indictments and the abolition of supplementary investigative authority. If concerns about investigative gaps materialize, the backlash from prosecution reform is also likely to fall on Kim.
Chair Kim did not hold a separate press conference or briefing after the convention ended that day.