2020 election: new deputy to start immediately after surprise victory

For a man who claimed to have won nothing in his life, Glen Bennett’s surprising success in eliminating New Plymouth’s electorate is a pretty impressive start.

“People are really excited about the change,” he said the morning after the election, although he admitted that reality had not yet fully affected him.

Bennett said he and his support team entered the campaign thinking that a win against National starter Jonathan Young was possible or at least close.

While special votes were not yet taken into account, Bennett took the lead early when the results fell Saturday night and were never released.

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He ultimately won the seat with 18,072 votes, 1,519 more than Young.

First-time candidate Bennett was thrilled as he hugged his partner Jon O’Neill after receiving Young’s concession phone call Saturday at the Vogeltown Bowling Club, where Labor faithful held their nightly election party.

Later, Young came to the club with his wife Maura and a group of fans to congratulate his rival.

But on Sunday Bennett, 44, whose expertise is community work and development, stopped short in describing becoming an MP as a life-changing development.

“I see it as a continuation of the work that I have done at Taranaki for 20 years, but yes, it takes it to a whole new level.”

The achievement was also aided by a sustained campaign effort, which included the most billboards around the electorate in recent history, along with increased volunteers and more money raised through fundraising.

And the payoff for Bennett is that the MP role will give him a larger platform to represent New Plymouth’s needs.

He accepted that the role would come with greater public scrutiny.

“I want to be responsible.”

Bennett said he never shied away from “indulging in muddled conversations.”

“And I want to do that as a deputy.

“I am not afraid of difficult conversations. I don’t necessarily like them, but I always want to be up front. “

On Sunday morning, Bennett helped clean up the club, which had been the scene of jubilation, cheers and tears in reaction to his victory less than 12 hours earlier.

Starting Monday, Bennett will go live, with a flight to Wellington on the cards as he begins his induction to life as a MP, and he will have the opportunity to meet his colleagues from the Labor caucus for the first time.

He admitted some nerves, but ultimately, it was a general sense of excitement.

One of the things that he liked the most was the reaction he was getting from the people around him regarding his electoral success.

“I’m excited by how excited other people are,” he said.

Bennett’s mother, Judith, traveled from Wellington to be with her son on election night and described the experience as “surreal.”

While she could be considered biased, she endorsed her son’s ability to nail him as a deputy for the first time.

“He will take care of his constituency, he will work hard and he loves people, people in all areas,” he said.

“He has a very strong social justice conscience and is compassionate.”

One priority Bennett wanted traction on as a MP in his first term was to build on the work being done at the Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki, or Witt, including securing the necessary funding for a long-overdue upgrade. .