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Home Issues Backissues Volume 32, No.2 How Voters View Candidates Running for Office While Holding Another Position: A Case Study of Legislative Elections from 2012 to 2020

How Voters View Candidates Running for Office While Holding Another Position: A Case Study of Legislative Elections from 2012 to 2020

Yi-long Chen, Lu-huei Chen
2025 / 11
Volume 32, No.2

pp.77-112
10.6612/tjes.202511_32(2).0003
Paper

Abstract

“Running for an office while holding another position” is common in Taiwanese elections, where incumbent politicians often engage in another campaign before the end of their term, aiming for higher-level political positions. This phenomenon has been discussed in several elections, sparking much debate during the campaigns. There are numerous studies focusing on the political promotion from the perspective of candidates, such as the promotion opportunities within the political structure and candidate campaign strategies. However, there are few studies that approach the issue from the perspective of voters, exploring how voters perceive the behavior of candidates who “run for office while holding another position.” This study selects three legislative elections from 2012 to 2020 as the observation targets and employs an experimental method of “conjoint analysis” through an online survey to analyze whether voters accept the behavior of politicians seeking upward promotion under different conditions. The results indicate that although the public generally holds negative views toward “running for office while holding another position,” it becomes an advantageous condition for candidates when considering various backgrounds of candidates. Compared to candidates without incumbent positions, respondents still prefer candidates with incumbent legislative status. This suggests that although “running for office while holding another position” is negative label to candidates, it still represents that candidates possess a certain level of political experience. The positive effects of latter outweigh the negative effects of the former for voters.

Keywords

conjoint analyze

candidate evaluation

political promotion

voting behavior