Tahovecahe worked in the Pingtung County Government under the administration of magistrate Pan Men-an starting in 2016.[7] She was credited with increasing the vote share among the indigenous population for Pan.[8] In Pan's administration, Tahovecahe was the director-general of the Indigenous Peoples Department and later the director of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs.[9][10] She was subsequently appointed to the Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee.[11][12] In this capacity, Tahovecahe was one of the signatories of an open letter addressed to Xi Jinping on behalf of Taiwanese indigenous people in January 2019, shortly after he had commented on Chinese unification and the political status of Taiwan.[13][14]
In August 2019, Tahovecahe was nominated by the Democratic Progressive Party to run for legislative office in the multimember Highland Aborigine Constituency.[8][15] In January 2020, Tahovecahe was elected to the Legislative Yuan as one of three representatives in the Highland Aborigine Constituency.[16] She succeeded Chien Tung-ming, who did not run for reelection.[4] With her electoral victory, Tahovecahe became the first Democratic Progressive Party legislator to represent the Highland Aborigine Constituency.[17]
