Taiwan's local elections on November 28 will be the first nationwide vote since the 2024 presidential race, and with 13 of 22 city and county leaders term-limited, more than half the map is up for grabs.

• Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an is defending his seat against the DPP's Puma Shen, a national-security researcher backed personally by President Lai Ching-te.
• New Taipei is the biggest prize: the KMT and TPP settled on Lee Szu-chuan through a joint polling deal, and he faces the DPP's Su Chiao-hui.
• Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung all lose popular incumbents to term limits, testing whether their approval ratings transfer to successors.
• KMT–TPP cooperation broke down in Zhubei, and DPP figures say the split could cost the blue camp several seats it now holds.
• The three-way fight between the KMT, DPP and Ko Wen-je's TPP is widely read as an early marker for the 2028 presidential election.

Outlook: Candidate registration closes in early September, after which attention shifts to whether the blue-white alliance holds together in swing races like New Taipei and Yilan.