Candidates from Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), are keeping party Chair Cheng Li-wun at arm's length in the closing weeks of the 2026 Taiwan local elections, and Cheng has privately bristled at what she sees as slights on the campaign trail, KMT insiders told Storm Media.
The quiet distancing reaches the party's biggest names. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an's campaign initially had no plans to invite Cheng to its headquarters launch, and New Taipei mayoral candidate Lee Shu-chuan steered clear of a party-organized rally on restarting nuclear power, according to people familiar with both campaigns. Voters across Taiwan elect mayors, county magistrates, and councilors on November 28.
A Gloomy Map For Taiwan's Opposition
The mood inside the KMT has soured since the nomination season. Party headquarters mishandled the nomination for Changhua County magistrate, and a dispute over Zhubei, the fast-growing seat of Hsinchu County, broke down cooperation between the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP) there. That rift has cooled the two opposition parties' alliance nationwide, insiders said, leaving Changhua County, Hsinchu County, Chiayi City, and Yilan County in serious danger of slipping from KMT hands.
The two largest prizes are also less secure than the party expected. Lee, the KMT's candidate in New Taipei, Taiwan's most populous city, has not opened the commanding lead strategists had counted on and may even be falling behind, insiders said. Losing New Taipei would be a major blow for the KMT. In neighboring Taipei, Chiang has faced a sustained challenge since September from the "Yang Wave," the nickname for the surge of support behind Puma Shen of President Lai Ching-te's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Taipei Mayoral Polls Send Mixed Signals As Cheng's Ratings Slide
Polls in the Taipei mayoral race, the marquee contest of the 2026 Taiwan local elections, point in different directions. A Taiwan Strategy Research Association survey released on November 2 put Shen ahead 52.6% to 35.3%. An ETtoday Poll Cloud online survey taken after the October 31 televised debate had Chiang at 52.0% and Shen at 40.7%, while a TVBS telephone poll conducted the same evening showed Chiang leading by 4 percentage points.
Party insiders say the KMT's favorability has slid steadily since Cheng took over as chair, and her personal ratings are lower still. With local races looking difficult, KMT candidates for mayor and county magistrate have made their approach plain: keep Cheng at a distance, give her little to do, and leave her on the margins of their campaigns.
Rally Welcomes Become A Sore Point In Taichung And Yilan
Some local media reports have said Cheng is angry at being used as a warm-up act at rallies. Insiders describe a different grievance. Ahead of a rally for Johnny Chiang, the KMT's candidate for Taichung mayor, on the morning of October 4, his campaign asked party headquarters whether the candidate should greet Cheng on arrival and escort her in for a formal entrance. Cheng's office said that would not be necessary, insiders said, but once she arrived, Cheng was upset that Johnny Chiang had neither received her nor walked in with her.
A similar scene played out earlier at a rally for Wu Tsung-hsien, the KMT's candidate for Yilan County magistrate. Wu's campaign asked the same questions, received the same answer from headquarters, and still found Cheng displeased on the day that no one had welcomed her or staged an entrance.
KMT campaign staff across the country know one another, and word spread quickly. Aides now remind each other to be careful when arranging Cheng's appearances through party headquarters, insiders said, because the program may suddenly have to be changed on the spot to meet her expectations.
A Party Chair Left Standing Behind An Ally
That afternoon, at the launch of Lee's campaign headquarters in New Taipei, Cheng was upset again. Insiders said the issue was not her speaking slot but the staging. When Cheng took the stage to speak, only party officials and KMT legislators stood behind her, with no city councilors. Councilors were introduced only after she finished.
TPP Chair Huang Kuo-chang then came up to speak, and Cheng remained on stage. She asked whether she was supposed to stay there, insiders said, before walking off on her own. Below the stage, she scolded party officials, complaining that the chair of the KMT had been reduced to a backdrop for the TPP chair, and sent them to ask the organizers how the program had been arranged.
Taipei Mayor's Team Weighed Leaving Cheng Off The Guest List
Chiang's reelection campaign in Taipei had no intention of inviting Cheng when it opened its headquarters on October 26, according to people familiar with the matter. Only after Cheng made her unhappiness known and a party official phoned senior members of Chiang's team was she invited to attend.
New Taipei Candidate Sidestepped A Nuclear Power Rally
The fate of a KMT rally promoting the restart of nuclear power tells a similar story. Local media have reported that the event, set for November 8, was canceled. It was first planned for October 4 in New Taipei, but Lee postponed it, saying his own large rally in the Banqiao district that day meant supporters should not be mobilized twice.
The real reason, insiders said, was that Lee found it awkward to make the case for restarting nuclear power in a city that is itself home to nuclear plants, including the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Party headquarters then tried to move the event to Taipei. By that point, Chiang's camp was stretched thin responding to the Yang Wave and had no appetite for opening another front. After Chiang's team declined, the nuclear rally was dropped altogether.
Insiders See An Early Search For Scapegoats
Whether Cheng would step down if the KMT suffers heavy losses is now a question party insiders are asking. One campaign aide offered a rueful answer: with candidates distancing themselves from Cheng and declining to bring her to rallies, she could simply say after a defeat that the campaigns lost because they ignored her and passed up the boost she could have given them. The current snubs, the aide joked, may end up giving Cheng her own excuse.
Other party figures see the blame game already underway. Chiang Yung-hsiung, a member of the KMT Central Committee, launched a petition urging party headquarters to expel Jaw Shaw-kong, a veteran broadcaster and longtime KMT figure, after Jaw interviewed Shen. The petition accused Jaw of treating Shen favorably and hurting Chiang Wan-an's campaign.
The petition reflects the frustration of some staunch KMT voters, but another group inside the party reads it as the start of an effort to shift blame for an expected defeat. They say party headquarters appears to be setting up Jaw to take responsibility if the KMT loses Taipei, or both Taipei and New Taipei.
A Central Committee Member Rallies Behind Cheng
The KMT moved quickly to contain the petition, and the dispute did not spread. But Chiang Yung-hsiung has since posted a message in KMT supporter chat groups under the title "Why we must consolidate the leadership core."
"In the 2025 party chair election, Cheng Li-wun won 65,122 votes, or 50.15% of valid ballots. She is a chair produced by a direct vote of party members with majority support," the post said. "She joined the KMT in 2005, more than 20 years ago, and is a comrade with long involvement in party and public affairs. Whether in terms of democratic mandate or party membership, there is no question about the legitimacy of her chairmanship."
The post went further. "Key cadres who were cultivated by the party and hold political resources should also bear responsibility for unity and cooperation. Personal profile, local strength, and factional resources should all be used to serve the people and strengthen the party," it said. "We cannot demand that the chair bear responsibility for the whole party's success or failure while undermining her ability to coordinate personnel, policy, and organization at every turn."
Party insiders who saw the post were not impressed. With less than a month left before the 2026 Taiwan local elections, they said, everyone should be throwing themselves into the campaign. Instead, someone is rushing to "consolidate" a leadership that the party's own candidates are scrambling to keep at a distance. A KMT like that, one insider said, will need a great deal of luck to win.
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