All pro-Jung candidates survive Democratic Party preliminary vote

The most striking result of the Democratic Party of Korea's preliminary election for its Aug. 17 national convention is that every candidate aligned with Jung Chung-rae survived the cut. Within the party, the prevailing interpretation is that hardcore supporters of Jung and his allies turned out en masse and concentrated their votes on the faction's candidates.

Of the eight supreme council candidates who advanced to the main race, five — Park Seon-won, Kim Yong, Seo Mi-hwa, Kim Yeong-ho and Im Mi-ae — are aligned with the pro-Lee Jae Myung camp, while three — Lee Sung-yoon, Han Min-su and Choi Min-hee — are aligned with the pro-Jung camp. Five of the 10 preliminary candidates from the pro-Lee camp, including Park Seong-jun and Lee Geon-tae, were eliminated, whereas all three pro-Jung candidates advanced.

Voter turnout in the preliminary election reached 37.44 percent, up 6.83 percentage points from the 30.61 percent recorded at the 2024 national convention. Some within the party attribute the surge to organized participation by hardcore supporters, arguing it directly fueled the pro-Jung faction's strong showing. Before the vote, guidelines reportedly circulated among those supporters specifying which pro-Jung candidate to back based on birth month.

Pro-Lee supreme council candidate Kim Yong said on SBS Radio on Friday that the pro-Jung camp's "strategy for the preliminary election was remarkably sophisticated in electoral terms," but added, "On the other hand, I felt deeply uncomfortable. Would you run an elementary school class president election this way?"

The main race for the Aug. 17 convention gets fully under way Aug. 1 with a joint campaign speech event kicking off the South Chungcheong Province, North Chungcheong Province, Daejeon and Sejong regional primary circuit. The central question is whether the pro-Lee camp can check the pro-Jung faction's momentum. The pro-Jung side has been winning over hardcore supporters with sharp-edged positions, including the complete abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers and a one-person, one-vote system. The expansion of the rights-member vote share to 70 percent in the main race is also seen as working in the pro-Jung camp's favor.

Against that backdrop, some observers warn that clashes between the two factions will only intensify as the main race unfolds.

The pro-Lee camp's party leadership contenders have also been pressing for a swift conclusion to the prosecution reform debate — a move widely read as a response to the pro-Jung faction's rallying momentum.

Immediately after the preliminary results were announced Thursday, Kim Min-seok said in his remarks, "I would like to take this opportunity to say one thing to the party leadership. Now that the national convention is getting fully under way, when you weigh everything together, the time has come to wrap up the prosecution reform issue. I believe prosecution reform must neither become a stumbling block nor be used as a tool."

Candidate Song Yeong-gil also told reporters, "I hope this gets resolved quickly so there is no dangerous situation where the president's concerns are distorted and the president himself is attacked as being anti-reform."

The pro-Lee camp has also kept up what is widely seen as a thinly veiled attack on Jung over the so-called "Shincheonji involvement" allegations. Supreme council candidate Kim Yong said of the matter, "I think there is more than just suspicion — there could well be actual facts behind it. When President Lee Jae Myung was Gyeonggi Province governor, he once traveled all the way to Gapyeong to apprehend Lee Man-hee. There was a firm stance within Shincheonji that Lee Jae Myung must never be allowed to succeed."

Jung, for his part, said, "I ask that clear evidence be presented and an investigation be requested," adding that he would "absolutely not forgive such conduct and will sternly punish and judge it together with the people and party members through the national convention."