Lee's picks go 4-for-6 as Ha Jung-woo, Kim Byung-wook fall short

Aides who served in President Lee Jae Myung's Cheong Wa Dae achieved mixed results in the ninth nationwide local elections, winning four of six contests. Spokesperson-turned-candidates Kim Nam-jun and Jeon Eun-su secured National Assembly seats, as did Kim Nam-kuk, a former digital communications secretary. Woo Sang-ho, the first chief political secretary, won the Gangwon Province gubernatorial race. But Ha Jung-woo, the former AI and future planning secretary known as "Ha-GPT," lost to independent candidate Han Dong-hoon by 1.7 percentage points, and former political affairs secretary Kim Byung-wook fell short in Seongnam — the political home base of President Lee.

President Lee had visited Busan, Daegu, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province in the final stretch of the campaign, targeting areas long considered hostile territory for the ruling Democratic Party, but the visits failed to produce a sweep. Of the six contests — three regional government head races in Daegu, Busan and Ulsan, and three National Assembly by-elections in Busan Buk-gu Gap, Ulsan Nam-gu Gap and Daegu Dalseong-gun — only sitting lawmakers Jeon Jae-soo and Kim Sang-uk won; every other Democratic Party candidate lost.

Cheong Wa Dae issued no statement Thursday on the election results. President Lee had posted four messages on social media Wednesday — election day — touching on voting, real estate and other issues, but offered no public comment Thursday morning.

Six candidates were considered President Lee's personal picks, and four of them won. Kim Nam-jun, nicknamed "The King's Warden" and running in Incheon Gyeyang-gu Eul — the constituency Lee himself represented as a lawmaker — won with 61.65 percent of the vote. Jeon Eun-su, who ran in Asan Eul in South Chungcheong Province, the constituency of Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, took 60.16 percent. Kim Nam-kuk, who resigned as Cheong Wa Dae's digital communications secretary amid the so-called "local sister" controversy, won in Ansan Gap in Gyeonggi Province with 55.45 percent. Woo Sang-ho, who declared his candidacy for Gangwon governor early in his tenure as the first chief political secretary, defeated incumbent People Power Party candidate Kim Jin-tae by roughly 30,000 votes.

The most fiercely contested race of the election, however, ended in defeat. Ha Jung-woo, who entered the Busan Buk-gu Gap race with the full backing of President Lee, lost to Han Dong-hoon — a former People Power Party leader — by just 1,392 votes. The opposition failed to consolidate behind a single candidate, with PPP candidate Park Min-sik drawing 12,866 votes, and analysts say even the active support of the Democratic Party and three-term incumbent Jeon Jae-soo — who vacated the seat to run for Busan mayor — was not enough to overcome the split.

Results across the Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang region told a similar story. In Daegu, a late campaign appearance by former President Park Geun-hye helped Choo Kyung-ho, a veteran of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, win his race. In South Gyeongsang Province, Kim Gyeong-su, a former chair of the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development, lost to the People Power Party. In Ulsan, incumbent lawmaker Kim Sang-uk won his race, but the by-election for his vacated seat in Ulsan Nam-gu Gap went to Kim Tae-gyu of the People Power Party, a former Korea Communications Commission official under the Yoon administration.