Key facts
- Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, Jung Chung-rae, and Song Young-gil will vie for the leadership of the Democratic Party.
- The party's national convention to elect a new leader is scheduled for August 17.
- The new leader will be instrumental in selecting candidates for the April 2028 parliamentary elections.
- The selection of the top three candidates was based on a weighted combination of votes from central committee members, dues-paying members, and public opinion polls.
Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and two former leaders of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil, have advanced to the final round of the party's leadership race. The DP will hold its national convention on August 17 to elect a new leader, who will be responsible for overseeing the nomination of candidates for the April 2028 parliamentary elections.
So Byung-hoon, chief of the party convention election committee, confirmed that Kim, Jung, and Song secured the top three positions in the primary. The selection process for the top three leadership candidates was determined by a composite score, with 35 percent of the vote coming from the party's central committee members, another 35 percent from dues-paying members, and the remaining 30 percent from public opinion poll results.
Other candidates, including former presidential spokesperson Ko Min-jung and former Gangjin councilmember Kim Bo-mi, did not make the cut. In addition to the leadership race, eight out of 14 candidates won their primaries to advance to the final round for the party's supreme council.
Jung Chung-rae, a four-term lawmaker, was widely expected to be among the top contenders. Kim Min-seok, a key political ally of President Lee Jae Myung, served as the first prime minister under the current administration. Kim has pledged to support the Lee administration's agenda and implement significant party reforms, citing the party's failure to fully leverage President Lee's public approval following the June local elections, where the DP won many seats but lost key mayoral races.