Ho Hsin-chun

Ho Hsin-chun's public image in the Taichung mayoral race is built on years of grassroots work rather than star power. She served two terms on the Taichung County Council and one on the Taichung City Council and has been elected to the Legislative Yuan four times since 2012; the opponent she beat by more than 8,000 votes in her first legislative win was none other than current KMT chair Cheng Li-wun, and in 2016 and 2020 she drew the most votes of any legislative candidate in the city, making her a familiar constituency politician. The DPP drafted her as early as October 2025, before her opponent had even been decided. She faces a structural challenge: the mayor she hopes to succeed is the term-limited and highly popular KMT incumbent Lu Shiow-yen, and her opponent is Legislative Deputy Speaker Johnny Chiang, a moderate who leads in most published polls. Those polls diverge: a September survey that TVBS conducted for the KMT caucus in the Taichung City Council put the gap at 12.6 percentage points, while an October poll commissioned by the pro-DPP Trust Taiwan Friends Association found it under 2 points, with about 30 percent of voters still undecided. Her platform centers on an MRT network, care for all ages and an unmanned-vehicle industry cluster, and she has attacked the Lu administration over delays to the Taichung MRT Blue Line. If she can pull the race into a dead heat, she will be seen as a central-Taiwan leader in her own right.