The DDP is looking to turn Nantou Country Green. In this pursuit they now have two candidates that will compete to become the nominee in November.
With the current Nantou Magistrate, Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) reaching the end of his second term, there will be two fresh candidates on each side of the race in this year’s election. The KMT candidate has already been chosen. Hsu Shu-Hua (許淑華) (no not the DPP City Councilor in Taipei of the same name) won the KMT primary back in October of last year. Her opponent will be one of two possible candidates.
One possible option is Frida Tsai (蔡培慧). Tsai is a former legislator in the Legislative Yuan. She lost by about 7 percent in her last run in 2020. She is also a social activist. She has participated in many movements for the Taiwan Rural Front (台灣農村陣線), a group that strives to make Taiwan’s rural and agricultural regions more sustainable and fights for environmental justice and land rights.
The other potential candidate is Chen Ji-heng (陳紀衡). Chen is currently the mayor of Jiji Township (集集鎮) in Nantou County. Chen was not a member of the DPP until 2020. Before this he was an independent and a member of the extremely small Tree Party, an environmental activist party that was dissolved in 2020 due to issues with financial declarations.
The two candidates will compete in a primary in the coming months. The exact time of the primary will be determined soon by the DPP. Both candidates have shown that they can win in Nantou before, but it is to be seen if they can win on a county-wide basis. The DPP will face an uphill battle as the DPP hasn’t controlled the Nantou Magistrate position since 2005. As the election grows nearer, and especially after the primary vote, we are likely to get more polling data on head-to-head matchups between the KMT and DPP candidate which we will bring you as they drop!