Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) privately considered offering former opposition lawmaker Huang Shan-shan at least the post of Taipei deputy mayor to win over the 342,000 voters who backed her in 2022, according to a person involved in the party's campaign, as polls for the 2026 Taiwan local elections show her old supporters swinging the capital's race.
The election on November 28 pits DPP legislator Puma Shen against Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), who is seeking a second term. The smaller opposition Taiwan People's Party (TPP) has not fielded a candidate, leaving Huang's former supporters up for grabs.
Huang, a former Taipei deputy mayor, ran as an independent in 2022 and won 342,141 votes, or 25.14%, finishing third behind Chiang and the DPP's Chen Shih-chung. She has not endorsed either candidate this time. On November 5, she wrote on Facebook that "nothing is scarier than pretending to understand what you don't," a line that set off fresh speculation about whom she had in mind.
Polls Show Huang's Voters Leaning Toward Shen
Taipei polls for the 2026 Taiwan local elections suggest her 2022 supporters are drifting toward the DPP. A TVBS poll in early October found that 53% of Huang's 2022 voters now favored Shen and 39% favored Chiang. A Z Media poll released on October 22 put the split at 54.4% to 34.1%.
The overall picture is less settled. A Strategy and Public Research Institute of Taiwan poll released on November 2 showed Shen ahead 52.6% to 35.3%, while an ETtoday poll released two days later had Chiang leading 50.7% to 41.9%.
Lai Warns His Party The Capital Is Not Yet Won
President Lai Ching-te, who also chairs the DPP, told the party's Central Standing Committee on October 28 not to be swayed by recent polling, according to accounts of the meeting. "Puma Shen has not won yet. He is still a little short," Lai said. He added that with no TPP candidate in the race, no one could say where the centrist voters, young voters and "Huang Shan-shan votes" of 2022 would end up.
Both candidates have courted her. Chiang has said he is willing to attend TPP events. Shen, visiting former Taipei City Council Speaker Chen Chien-chih of the KMT on November 5, was asked whether he would seek Huang's advice. He said his proposals on the city's hillsides, traditional markets, urban renewal and nighttime economy overlapped heavily with her 2022 platform. "If I get the chance to ask her, of course I want to take it," he said, adding that he would welcome advice from anyone who could help the city.
A Deputy Mayor Post Was Weighed Inside The DPP
The person involved in the DPP's campaign told Storm Media that they had privately asked senior party and government figures whether the party should seek Huang's cooperation. The officials did not reject the idea, the source said. Their view was that if the DPP wanted her on its side, it would have to offer something concrete, since she would otherwise have no reason to join forces with the party.
The options considered included giving Huang at least the post of deputy mayor, the source said. It is not clear whether any offer was ever conveyed to her.
Her Brother Served Two DPP Presidents
Huang has spent her political career outside the DPP's camp, but her family's ties to the party's governments run deep. Her older brother, retired Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, is a former Chief of the General Staff and a former adviser to the National Security Council. He was a trusted figure under both President Tsai Ing-wen and President Lai, and the driving force behind Taiwan's indigenous submarine program until 2024, when he stepped down as its convener, saying he was physically and mentally exhausted.
A DPP official said that although the siblings once sat on opposite sides of the political divide, the DPP government continued to treat Huang Shu-kuang with respect after he left his posts.
Huang Shan-shan herself has kept a channel open to the DPP. Ahead of the 2024 vote for speaker of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's legislature, she confirmed that a friend had arranged for her to meet Cho Jung-tai, now Taiwan's premier. No deal came of it, but the meeting showed both sides were willing to talk.
Tsai Ing-wen Once Made Room For Huang
Even at the height of partisan clashes in the legislature, Huang found common ground with DPP lawmakers. DPP legislator Wu Szu-yao once posted a photo with her after the legislature's judiciary committee reached consensus on amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act, writing that "breaking the ice between the ruling and opposition parties really isn't easy."
DPP legislator Wang Shih-chien, a friend of Huang's, went further on a television program in January 2025. He argued that the DPP should work with her, calling her trustworthy, and said doing so would help pass bills on everyday issues while weakening the influence of Huang Kuo-chang, who now chairs the TPP.
The DPP has backed her before. In the 2016 legislative elections, Tsai and then-Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who later founded the TPP, built a cross-party front in which the DPP stood aside in several Taipei districts for non-KMT candidates. Huang was one of them. Running for the People First Party, she lost to the KMT's Lee Yen-hsiu but drew support from some DPP voters, and after the election she appeared alongside Tsai at a thank-you banquet in Taipei.
A Frozen Relationship With TPP Chair Huang Kuo-chang
Huang's bigger problem may lie inside her own party. Since Ko stepped back from party decision making, the TPP under Huang Kuo-chang has often been described as a "little blue" party, a reference to the KMT's party color, suggesting it now trails in the larger opposition party's wake.
A person familiar with the TPP caucus said Huang Shan-shan preferred to negotiate with different parties issue by issue rather than follow the KMT's lead. Once Huang Kuo-chang took control of the caucus, the bills she wanted to push were often held back by his views.
A TPP insider said cooperation between opposition parties on legislation was unavoidable, yet some in the party had branded Huang Shan-shan "pro-green," meaning pro-DPP, and even a "mole," which only embarrassed the TPP. A former aide to Huang described her relationship with Huang Kuo-chang as a knot that cannot be untied. Whenever someone in her office mentioned his name, the aide recalled, the mood in the room would instantly freeze.
Huang Says She Is Done With Elections
Huang stepped down from the legislature at the end of January 2026 under the TPP's two-year rule, which rotates its at-large lawmakers out of their seats midway through a term. At the time she wrote on Facebook that she could finally rest and "just wanted to be free to be myself again." On September 3, she said she would not run for office again, noting that she had been contesting elections almost her whole life, since the age of 28. "I gave it my all, and I have no regrets," she said.
A friend of Huang's said she no longer sees herself as part of the political world and has no plans to step into the Taipei race of the 2026 Taiwan local elections. However hard either camp pushes, the friend said, she will not endorse anyone. Asked privately about readings of her Facebook posts as digs at Chiang or Shen, Huang gave only a brief reply: "What I think, I'll keep to myself."
"People who have been ill put themselves first," the friend said. Huang has not stopped caring about politics, the friend added, but she does not want to be part of the tug of war again. One person cannot end the hostility between Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties, and if politics cannot return to reason, she has even less cause to go back. As both camps comb through her every word for a hint of whom she favors, Huang has turned her attention to life beyond elections.
