Election 2026: Who’s in, who’s out and who’s circling Northland seats
With the general election on November 7, the Northern Advocate looks at the intentions of Northland-based MPs, and their plans for the seats of Whangārei, Northland and Te Tai Tokerau.
Northland MP Grant McCallum, from the National Party, says his renomination was confirmed last year, so he will be on the campaign trail.
The Maungaturoto farmer was a political novice when he took the Northland seat off Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime in 2023 and has been keeping busy since then, including clocking up 42,000km on his ute in his first year alone.
The cost of living and general economic challenges would be a key issue for the Northland electorate this year, he said.
Roading – including progressing the four-lane highway to Whangārei – access to GPs and other healthcare, plus law and order, were also key topics, the MP said.
McCallum offered National some stability in the north, after Whangārei MP Dr Shane Reti this month announced his retirement.
Reti held the Whangārei seat from 2014 to 2020, losing it to Labour’s Emily Henderson before winning it back in 2023.
He entered Cabinet in 2023 initially as Health Minister – a portfolio he controversially lost in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2025.
Reti is now Minister of Pacific Peoples, Statistics, Universities, and Science, Innovation and Technology, plus will remain Whangārei MP until the election.
National opened nominations for the Whangārei candidacy, with electorate chairman Paul Dunning expecting selection by the end of April.
One nominee is former Bayleys Auckland chief executive Lloyd Budd, who was born and raised in Whangārei.
With the Labour Party, Northland-based list MP Willow-Jean Prime will stand in the Te Tai Tokerau Māori seat this year, having won voters’ favour in the blue Northland seat in 2020 before losing it in 2023.
Prime said she was approached to stand in the seat shortly after the resignation of long-serving Labour MP Kelvin Davis.
She thought the cost of living and lack of jobs would be key issues for the area this election, with high rangatahi unemployment driving youth to Australia.
Labour would undergo a candidate selection process for the Northland candidacy.
The party’s Whangārei candidate has already been already confirmed as outspoken Whangārei emergency department clinician Dr Gary Payinda.
Payinda said he wanted to stand against the coalition Government’s moves to privatise the likes of healthcare and education, with his candidacy in November one of the first to be confirmed by Labour.
Te Pāti Māori controversy remains
Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said she had not yet confirmed her plans for the election and was still to discuss it with Te Pāti Māori.
Kapa-Kingi won her seat for Te Pāti Māori in 2023.
However, she was controversially ejected from the party in late 2025, accused of overspending $133,000 in her office. Allegations were also levelled at her high-profile activist son, Eru Kapa-Kingi.
This month, the High Court found her dismissal was unlawful and ruled she should be reinstated as a member of Te Pāti Māori. It also cleared her of any wrongdoing and said statements about her son were not factual.
However, Kapa-Kingi was unsuccessful in trying to argue that party president John Tamihere was not elected fairly.
Since the ruling, Kapa-Kingi has questioned whether her rohe can trust Te Pāti Māori. Her options include running as an independent in November.
Meanwhile, Northland-based Green MP Hūhana Lyndon has confirmed she will stand again in the Te Tai Tokerau seat, saying she has her party’s full backing.
Lyndon unsuccessfully stood in the seat in 2023, entering Parliament as a Green list MP instead.
This month, she was promoted in the rankings from No 10 to No 6.
Lyndon believed the promotion reflected the hard work she had done this term, including being seen throughout the area.
The Green Party upheld Te Tiriti o Waitangi and listened deeply to Māori concerns, she said.
It would put the stop on fast-track consents relating to sand mining, hard rock mining and coal mining, plus it wanted 35,000 more public houses, Lyndon said.
Another Northland-based MP, NZ First’s Shane Jones, said his party would finalise candidates shortly after the weekend’s State of the Nation speech by leader Winston Peters.
Whangārei-born Peters is the only NZ First member to have held the Northland seat, after winning a byelection in 2015.
Since 2020, the seat has been unsuccessfully contested for NZ First by Shane Jones, who re-entered Parliament in 2023 as a list MP.
Jones is the current Minister for Regional Development, Resources, Oceans and Fisheries, plus Associate Minister of Finance and Energy.
Peters, Deputy Prime Minister for the first part of this parliamentary term, is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Racing and Rail.
New parties emerge in Northland
With the election still more than nine months away, candidates continue to be announced, with nominations formally closing on October 8.
One candidate is Kerikeri conservation worker and business owner Richard McIntosh, who said he would run in the Northland seat for his new party, Build the Nation.
He said the party was based on ending privatisation and was vying for the centre vote, kicking off with a public meeting in Kerikeri on April 19.
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.