Jang Dong-hyuk, standing chairman of the People Power Party's election committee, visited Chuncheon, considered the key battleground for the Gangwon Province gubernatorial election, on the final day of early voting on the 30th to rally conservative voters. He went all-out in stumping for Kim Jin-tae, the Gangwon gubernatorial candidate, while invoking the call to pass judgment on the Lee Jae-myung administration.
Jang inspected the Dongseo High-Speed Railway construction site in Chuncheon together with candidate Kim that morning before moving to the Gongjicheon intersection to deliver a campaign speech.
At the rally, he took issue with President Lee Jae-myung's early voting conduct. "What did Lee Jae-myung do when he went to vote early yesterday? He needlessly brought out his marked ballot, showed his ballot in front of the cameras, and asked people to vote for the same person he voted for. Now what is he saying?" Jang said. "The president blatantly campaigned in front of broadcast cameras."
"Is there any clearer form of campaigning than this?" he continued. "Violating the duty of election neutrality is clear grounds for impeachment." Jang added, "If I had done such a thing, I would have been arrested yesterday on the spot. We must without fail pass judgment in this local election on his arrogant attitude of 'I am a president who erases even existing crimes and cancels trials, so go ahead and raise issues if you want.'"
Jang threw his weight behind candidate Kim, calling him "a warrior of the conservatives." "That is why former President Park Geun-hye came all the way to Gangwon to meet candidate Kim," he said. "She recognized Kim Jin-tae as a warrior of the conservatives."
He also raised the Dongseo High-Speed Railway project, a core issue for the Gangwon region. "To open the high-speed railway, the long-cherished project of Gangwon residents, in 2029, shouldn't Governor Kim be entrusted with Gangwon for another four years?" Jang said. "If Democratic Party candidate Woo Sang-ho becomes governor, can the long-cherished project proceed properly?"
He also brought up the controversy over Democratic Party candidate Woo Sang-ho's so-called "Hongje-dong remarks." "Send Woo Sang-ho, who doesn't even know where Hongje-dong is, back to Hongje-dong in Seoul," he said. "Gangwon's Hongje-dong will be defended by Kim Jin-tae."
Meanwhile, recent opinion polls show Kim and Woo locked in a tight race within the margin of error. In response, the People Power Party plans to concentrate firepower on key battlegrounds including Gangwon during the remaining campaign period to rally its support base in the final stretch.
