![]() She was raised in Wellington which is where she developed a keen interest in politics. While she’s been a Rangitīkei local for more than two decades, Redmayne describes herself as a “city girl who came good”. (It’s a safe claim to make, given Christopher Luxon has repeatedly assured New Zealanders this wouldn’t happen.) She told Newsroom last week that she’d cross the floor if National proposed altering New Zealand’s abortion laws. He tended to hold socially conservative views, but Redmayne considers herself socially progressive. It’s not the only way she differs from McKelvie. She’s the first female National candidate for Rangitīkei and if she wins, would become the first woman to hold the seat. She worked on the campaigns of former National MPs Ian McKelvie and Simon Power and has lived in the electorate for 26 years (her husband runs a farm and together they launched the family business Coastal Lamb). Redmayne knows the seat through and through, both politically and personally. This time around, Redmayne has her sights set on an absolute thrashing. ![]() ![]() In 2020, National managed to hold the Rangitīkei seat by 3,000 votes, despite losing a number of previously-held seats around the country. “I want to go hard,” she tells me, leaning over the table in a Taihape pub. It’s one of the country’s largest electorates at 12,500 square kilometres, spanning from Shannon to Taumarunui – and Redmayne reckons she’s best placed to represent all of it.īut despite political precedent suggesting she should trounce her opponents, Redmayne’s not taking anything for granted. She’s very likely to win it, an assumption based on the fact that the central North Island electorate has been held by National consistently since 1938, aside from a brief stint in the late 70s when Bruce Beethem of the now defunct Social Credit party took it in a byelection. The first-time candidate is running for the National Party in the blue-blooded seat of Rangitīkei. Suze Redmayne is fast-talking and oozing enthusiasm, which could be because she has one of the easiest tickets to parliament out of anyone in the country. The part-time political staffer, part-time farmer is the frontrunner to retain the safe National seat vacated by Ian McKelvie.
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