Rocking the Bayan: PKS Strategy to Replace Golkar Party's Dominance in the 2019 Legislative Elections in Bandung Regency

The Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) in several regions in principle has significant
differences with national achievements in terms of increasing electability. Although the
national achievement stagnated at 7-8%, in Bandung Regency, PKS succeeded in disrupting the
dominance of the Golongan Karya (Golkar) party, which for almost 20 years controlled
Bandung Regency in both the executive and legislative realms. This is based on the fact that in
2019, PKS took second place in the legislative vote. This research uses Peter Schroder's political
marketing strategy theory with two variables, namely offensive strategies (market expansion
strategies and market penetration strategies) and defensive strategies (market defense
strategies and market closing strategies). This research is also dissected with a qualitative
approach, where data analysis is operated with a mixed method between unstructured
interviews with PKS leaders in Bandung Regency and the use of secondary data collected from
mass media and PKS official social media. The results showed that PKS was able to move to the
second position of the legislative election vote because it managed to take advantage of several
strategic moments ranging from the 212 Islamic Defense Action in the national realm to
populist program campaigns such as lifetime driving licenses and tax-free motor vehicles and
was agile in positioning itself to respond to the internal conflict of the Golkar party in Bandung
Regency by then carrying Golkar cadres who left the party.