Taiwan's small third party is making a minimal push in Kaohsiung ahead of the 2026 local elections, a sign of how thin its resources are outside Taipei.

• The Taiwan People's Party is running only one city council candidate in Kaohsiung, Lin Yu-kai, and party founder Ko Wen-je campaigned for him in person.
• Ko framed the single seat as a "spark" — a foothold meant to keep the party alive as an alternative to the two big parties.
• Lin, a mechanical and electrical engineer by training, is pitching himself as a "city engineer" who fixes practical problems for ordinary families.
• He has visited 150 of a planned 200 households and says single-parent homes are the biggest unmet need, rising from about 870,000 in 2020 to over a million now.
• Lin is a political migrant: elected in 2018 for the New Power Party, he quit it in 2024 and joined the TPP in February 2026.

Outlook: A single Kaohsiung seat won't shift the council, but losing it would leave the TPP with no presence in Taiwan's southern stronghold of the ruling party.