The People Power Party views Daejeon’s Yuseong District as a difficult battleground; the party has not won a parliamentary seat or the district mayoralty there in more than a decade.
Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok launched his first electoral bid in the Yuseong Gap parliamentary race. He lost, but he described the effort as a success.
Perhaps for that reason, the party turned out in force on April 30 for the opening of People Power candidate Lee Geum-seon’s campaign office in Gwanpyeong-dong. Lee represents Yuseong’s 4th district on the Daejeon City Council (Gujeuk, Gwanpyeong, Jeonmin).
The event drew senior party figures and a large crowd of residents, including Lee Sang-rae, who chaired the Daejeon City Council in the first half of the term and leads the Dong-gu party association; Cho Won-hwi, who chaired the council in the second half and is running for Yuseong district mayor; Lee Taek-gu, chair of the Yuseong Gap party association; Oh Kyung-seok, Yuseong organization chair; Kim Dong-su, chair of the Yuseong District Council; councilors Lee Myung-sook, Lee Hee-hwan and Yang Myung-hwan; mayoral hopefuls Yu Dae-hyuk and Choi Seok-geun; neighborhood senior association presidents; and many local residents.
Lee Eun-kwon, chair of the People Power Party’s Daejeon branch, urged voters to “vote for capable, hardworking leaders,” adding, “We should elect a mayor who brought the Defense Acquisition Program Administration to the city—not an inept one who handed over the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.”
Cho Won-hwi, the Yuseong district mayoral candidate, praised Lee Geum-seon’s work and said, “Someone who delivers for residents like Councilor Lee should return to the council to continue addressing people’s livelihoods. When an official does good work, voters should re-elect them.”
At the opening, Councilor Lee Geum-seon said, “I have worked tirelessly to solve local problems and to advance education in Daejeon. If you entrust me with a larger role once more, I will repay that trust with politics that improve residents’ lives, carried out with even greater responsibility.”
Lee served two terms on the Yuseong District Council and later chaired the Education Committee in the second half of the 9th Daejeon City Council. She sponsored ordinances promoting childbirth and favoring larger families, authored the nation’s first ordinance to establish the Neulbom School program, and expanded eligibility for freshman school uniform support. Those measures helped ease childcare and education costs and produced tangible progress toward a “livable Daejeon—a city better suited for raising children.”
She also advanced local projects to address foul odors, traffic inconvenience and environmental concerns: she pushed to upgrade the odor-management system, secured an additional stop for bus No. 1001, and moved forward construction of a shared community facility for residents near the environmental complex (the Gujeuk Cultural Center). Officials say residents have noticed these changes. Lee also received the top prize twice in the local legislator Manifesto Promise Awards for pledge fulfillment, in 2021 and 2025.
