Curia, headed by ex-National staffer David Farrar, will continue to do the party’s polling.
National Party campaign director Jo de Joux.
The party has retained the support of creative agency Big On Writing, whose director, Sue Worthington is a veteran of several National campaigns (like De Joux, she skipped the 2020 campaign), as is CEO Ben Lott. Their colleague, videomaker Glenn Jameson, is also back. The team will coordinate the party’s ads as the campaign gets underway.
Cushla Baggott’s Rainmakers will be the party’s main ad-buying agency.
National does a lot of its social media in-house, but as the campaign gets underway, longtime social media firm Topham-Guerin will take control. The firm, founded by ex-Young Nats Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, has worked on campaigns in Australia and the UK and worked on National’s 2023 campaign.
Labour
Spearheading Labour’s effort to return to government will be campaign manager Beth Houston.
While she hadn’t acted in the role for Labour previously, Houston has experience, having led the campaign for the mixed-member proportional voting system ahead of the 2011 referendum.
She had also been involved in several campaigns for the Wellington Central seat with Grant Robertson, whom she also worked for as a ministerial advisor. As a former deputy vice-president of the party, Houston was heavily involved in the successful 2017 general election campaign.
Campaign manager Beth Houston (left) in her days as Labour’s vice-president. Photo / File
Houston had been in the role since August last year, her position confirmed months earlier than is typical for Labour. She would be supported by deputy campaign manager and field manager Alex O’Connor, who had previously worked as a Labour advisor. She would lead the party’s direct voter contact, overseeing phone-calling and door-knocking efforts. Eight party organisers across the country will also be coordinating on-the-ground campaigning in an approach reportedly reflecting former US President Barack Obama’s campaign strategy.
MP Kieran McAnulty will play a central role as campaign chairman. He is one of several members on the campaign executive, which includes leader Chris Hipkins, deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni, senior MP Willie Jackson, chief of staff Chris Bramwell, party president Jill Day, general secretary Rob Salmond, as well as Houston and O’Connor.
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty will be the party’s campaign chairman. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour is expected to receive support from its sister parties, primarily the Australian Labor Party but also the British Labour Party. There has been significant engagement between the transtasman parties to dissect Labor’s win in Australia’s federal election last year. Staff were often traded between the parties to assist during election campaigns.
Labour has contracted media agency Together to purchase its advertising. Advisor and pollster David Talbot will also be a key figure, providing polling through Talbot Mills Research. The party was currently negotiating a contract with a creative agency, although it’s considered unlikely the party would return to Augusto, the firm used during the 2017 campaign.
Retired MPs would also be involved in assisting new or inexperienced candidates in a mentor-type role. Maryan Street, a former minister under Helen Clark, had helped in this role for many years and would do so again in 2026.
Greens
Leroy Beckett, a former lead in previous Auckland campaigns, will be the Green Party’s campaign director.
Selected in July, Beckett’s experience includes former heading the re-election campaign of Auckland Mayor Phil Goff in 2019 (Goff’s main challenger was John Tamihere, President of Te Pāti Māori) as well as Chlöe Swarbrick‘s Auckland Central campaigns.
He will report monthly to a campaign committee, which includes representatives from the party caucus and Parliament staff.
Leroy Beckett. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Last year, Beckett made a series of visits across the country to engage with membership branches, tapping into a sense of optimism amongst members but also frustration given the series of public turmoil and tragedy that had struck the party this term.
Both party co-leaders, Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, will sit on the election campaign committee, alongside Teanau Tuiono and Ricardo Méndez March. The committee will be structured to achieve a Te Tiriti partnership model where our committee is made up of Māori and non-Māori members.
The party had been working through candidate selections from a larger pool of applicants than it normally had. An increased focus on scrutinising potential candidates had been implemented by the party as it sought to avoid controversies similar to those it had encountered in recent years.
The Greens’ membership was expected to vote on its list in about March.
Act
Callum Purves is campaign director for Act. Since 2024, he’s been the party’s general manager/party secretary, and prior to that he worked at the Taxpayers’ Union, a low-tax, free-market campaign group. A Scotsman, Purves previously worked with the UK Conservatives in Scotland, and served as a councillor on the Perth & Kinross Council.
Unlike some other parties, there won’t be a campaign chair, with Purves chairing the Campaign Leadership Team. Leader David Seymour will be the primary public voice on the campaign.
Act previously had longtime staffer Stu Wilson as campaign manager. In the past, the party has outsourced a lot of its campaign operation to Sentio, a company headed by Australia-based pollster and political strategist Nick Wright.
Seymour publicly voiced frustration with some of the way his 2023 campaign went, particularly the drop in Act’s support in the last days of the campaign, in which the party ran ads which Seymour thought contradicted the party’s hopeful message.
Act’s campaign manager Callum Purves. Photo / Supplied
For the 2026 election, Act is bringing a lot in-house. Over the past three years, it has built up in-house creative capacity and the party currently doesn’t intend to engage a separate advertising agency for content creation. That means it may not hire an external creative ad agency.
It will instead draw on its existing staff and some new additions for next year’s campaign. Act will continue to engage external contractors for ad buying.
The party is currently in the midst of candidate selections and expects some candidates from the 2023 election to put themselves forward again. It also reckons some candidates from the recent local body elections, which Act contested for the first time, may well put their hands up for the general election.
The party used a new vetting process for the local body elections which it will use again for its 2026 candidates.
British research firm Focaldata to provide polling and strategic insights. Act will be working with James Kanagasooriam, who has experience in political work in the UK, US, Canada, Israel and Ireland
He’s credited with coining the term “Red Wall” to describe the historically Labour seats, mainly in the North of England, that fell to the Conservatives led by Boris Johnson during the 2019 UK General Election.
NZ First’s Darroch Ball. Photo / Mark Mitchell
NZ First
A familiar face will also be heading up the NZ First campaign.
Darroch Ball will be returning as campaign director, a role he held on the last campaign. He’s been serving as NZ First chief of staff this Parliament. Prior to that, he was an MP with the party, entering Parliament in 2014. Julian Paul, party president since 2021 and candidate in 2017, will run campaign operations.
NZ First is still locking down its ad partners for 2026, with decisions in the next few weeks.
Te Pāti Māori did not share details of its campaign staff prior to publication.