Kim Gi-hyeon was born in Sanha-ri,
Gangdong-myeon,
Ulju,
South Gyeongsang (now
Gangdong-dong,
North District,
Ulsan) in 1959. He is the 4th of 6 children of Kim Byung-geuk, the former
Member of the South Gyeongsang Legislative Assembly from
1960 to
1961. After qualifying for the
bar in 1983, he worked in various non-governmental organisations i.e. Director of
YMCA in
Ulsan. He resigned his parliamentary membership on 5 May in order to register his candidacy. On
4 June, he received 65.42% and defeated the
Justice candidate
Jo Seung-soo. Following the election, Kim showed his intention to run for the
2017 election, comparing an example of
Bill Clinton, the former
Governor of Arkansas who was
elected the
President of the United States. In 2018, Kim was again nominated the Ulsan Mayor candidate for the
2018 local elections. Initially, he led on some polls due to his high popularity. Nevertheless, he then came behind to the
Democratic candidate
Song Cheol-ho. On 13 June, he finally lost to the Democratic candidate. On 29 January 2020, Kim launched his bid for the
2020 election. He contested
UFP preselection for
South District 2nd constituency and defeated
Park Maeng-woo. On 30 April 2021, Kim was elected the new parliamentary leader of the
People Power Party (PPP), defeating
Kim Tae-heum,
Kweon Seong-dong and
Yu Eui-dong. He also served as the acting party President until
Lee Jun-seok was
elected the new president on 11 June. He resigned as the parliamentary leader on 3 January 2022, but returned to the position 3 days later. On 29 March, he made his resignation without coming back to the position, in order to refurbish the party leadership. == Ideology ==