Rep. Joo Ho-young of the United Future Party won his fifth term by a huge margin against four-term lawmaker and potential presidential hopeful Rep. Kim Boo-kyum of the Democratic Party in the Suseong-A constituency in Daegu.

Joo won 59.8 percent of the ballot, easily beating Kim who came second place with 39.2 percent.

Having served senior positions in the United Future Party, Joo is now among the likely candidates to lead his troubled party.

Joo, a former judge at the Daegu District Court, had won in the neighboring Suseong-B district for four consecutive elections since 2004, three times under the main conservative party’s ticket and the last time as an independent.

He moved to Suseong-A this time with a mission from his party to beat the incumbent Kim, who won four years ago against a conservative heavyweight Kim Moon-soo with a margin of more than 20 percentage points.

As it was the first DP victory in the conservative stronghold of Daegu in 31 years, Kim Boo-kyum became an icon of breaking down regionalism.

“A farmer doesn’t blame the field he plows. I, the farmer, didn’t grasp the situation accurately,” Kim said as he acknowledged his defeat at about 9:50 p.m. on Wednesday.

Kim served as the interior and safety minister for the Moon Jae-in administration from July 2017 to April 2019, and announced on the first day of the campaign early this month that he also plans to run for president.

The former pro-democracy student activist in the 1970s and 1980s had won three terms in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, lost in his first parliamentary bid in Daegu in 2012, and also lost in the Daegu mayoral race in 2014.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)