People Power Party Candidates Turn to Kim Moon-soo as Campaign Face Ahead of June 3 Local Elections

Ahead of the 6·3 local elections, reports say People Power Party candidates are increasingly turning to Kim Moon-soo, rather than party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, as the public face of their campaigns. In Busan, Daegu, Gangwon, Sejong and North Gyeongsang Province, candidates have been reported to be naming Kim an honorary chief campaign chair or asking him to join support rallies. With a sitting party leader in place, the move to elevate another figure as a campaign banner underscores the party’s current predicament.
 
In party elections, the leader is typically the party’s face. It is political common sense that the leader travels to support candidates, keeps campaign messaging consistent and ultimately bears responsibility for defeat. When candidates seek someone other than their leader, it signals more than tactics: it suggests distrust in the leadership structure, an internal judgment that the current brand is not competitive, and a detour aimed at consolidating core supporters.
 
The party’s situation has been described in stark terms. Recent elections and opinion trends have shown the conservative bloc struggling to mobilize as it once did, not only in the Seoul metropolitan area but also in traditional strongholds. Critics have also said preparations for the local elections have been uneven, compounded by weak candidate competitiveness, factional conflict and leadership confusion. In some regions, even finalizing candidate lineups has been delayed, and sitting lawmakers have pressed the leadership to settle matters quickly.
 
Against that backdrop, the emergence of the Kim Moon-soo option carries implications. Kim, described as having gained symbolic standing as a rallying point for conservative supporters during the last presidential election, is also seen as capable of mobilizing hard-line conservatives. For candidates in areas where votes are urgently needed, choosing a figure viewed as having proven pull with supporters may appear more practical than relying on the current leadership.
 
But the approach also has limits. A party that repeatedly calls back familiar figures can struggle to present a forward-looking vision. Elections cannot be won on nostalgia alone. Voters, the article argues, are less focused on who is more hard-line than on who can revive local economies and address transportation, housing and jobs. Local elections are a test of bread-and-butter governance, not merely a proxy fight for national politics. If a party leans on one person’s symbolism, its organization and policy competitiveness may weaken further.
 
The issue, it adds, should not be reduced to Jang alone. If the crisis were structural yet solvable simply by changing one leader, it would have been resolved long ago. The deeper question is why candidates feel they need a star figure outside the party’s own banner. The party must examine why its message has lost force, why younger and centrist voters have drifted away, and why solutions to local issues are not clearly presented.
 
A political party, the article says, should not borrow a face at every election. It should build trust, cultivate talent and be judged on policy. The phenomenon of People Power Party candidates seeking out Kim, it argues, highlights the party’s absence more than any one individual’s presence.
 
For conservative politics to regain its footing, it concludes, the priority is not swapping out a campaign signboard but improving the party’s fundamentals. Elevating a different face by bypassing the leader is only a stopgap. Voters already understand that substance, not a face, decides elections.