David Seymour

He first stood for ACT in in Mt Albert and was also ranked 37th on the party list.

He was unsuccessful in the electorate, which was held by Helen Clark, the prime minister at the time, and with 1.51% of the party vote ACT returned only two members to parliament, leaving Seymour out.

David Breen Seymour (born 24 June 1983) is a New Zealand politician.

He is the leader of ACT New Zealand and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom.

He currently serves as the Minister for Regulation in the Sixth National Government of New Zealand.

Seymour joined ACT as a student at the University of Auckland.

Following his graduation, he worked in the engineering industry.

Seymour was born in Palmerston North to a Ngāpuhi mother and Pākehā father in 1983.

His family moved to Whangārei when Seymour was a child.

As a teenager, he went to Auckland Grammar School and, later, the University of Auckland where he graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical & Electronic) and a Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy).

Following his graduation from university, Seymour worked in the engineering sector.

Seymour worked in Canada as a policy analyst for five years for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Manning Centre.

Seymour is a long-time member of ACT, initially becoming involved in the political party through ACT on Campus while studying at Auckland University.

While there, he became leader of the student organisation.

Subsequently working for conservative think tanks in Canada during the 2000s, before returning to New Zealand and standing unsuccessfully for election to Parliament in 2005 and 2011.

He entered the House of Representatives in as ACT's sole MP, after which he replaced Jamie Whyte as party leader.

While living in Canada, Seymour contested the 2008 election for ACT as list-only candidate, ranked 55th.

At the 2011 general election, Seymour stood for ACT in the electorate, but the electorate was retained by National's Nikki Kaye.

Seymour was ranked fifth on the party list, but with 1.07% of the party vote, ACT was unable to return any list MPs to parliament, and John Banks, who had retained the seat for ACT, was the party's only sitting member.

After the 2011 election, Seymour worked as a ministerial adviser for Banks, who was appointed an Associate Minister of Education for the John Key-led National government.

Seymour assisted with the development of the government's Partnership Schools legislation.

In late 2013, John Banks resigned from his ministerial positions following criminal charges in relation to electoral returns in his bid for the Auckland mayoralty in 2010.

Seymour contested three elections before his eventual success in 2014.

In June 2014 he announced he would resign from ACT Party leadership and not contest Epsom in the 2014 election.

In February 2014, at the same time that Jamie Whyte was made leader of the ACT Party, Seymour won the nomination to stand as the party's candidate for Epsom.

The electorate had already proven strategically important for ACT.

Seymour's selection for Epsom, over former deputy leader and party president John Boscawen, was described by political commentators as the "clean slate" choice and a "fresh face".

Seymour was the first confirmed candidate for the Epsom electorate, and at an Epsom public meeting during his campaign he was described as "the most popular with the crowd" and "the star of the night, intelligent, witty and articulate".

During the 2014 election campaign, Seymour released a campaign video online which the ACT Party described as going "viral" after it received around 35,000 views.

Seymour said of the video: "I think it was just totally real, we didn't set out to make it funny or make it a viral video, it was just me being me, that combination with rather retro production values ... you wouldn't want to watch it standing up."

Seymour was endorsed for the Epsom electorate by Prime Minister John Key, despite Key's National colleague Paul Goldsmith also contesting the electorate.

At the election, Seymour was elected for the Epsom electorate with a majority of 4,250 votes.

Jamie Whyte did not win in his bid for the Pakuranga electorate, and Seymour replaced Whyte as the leader of ACT on 3 October 2014.

Seymour's End of Life Choice bill was selected from the members' ballot on 8 June 2017 and was put to a referendum in October 2020 in conjunction with the 2020 general election.

In 2018 he appeared in a television dance contest, Dancing With the Stars.

It passed with 65.91% and came into force as the End of Life Choice Act 2019 a year after the referendum.

Seymour was re-elected in, and led ACT to one of its best results in the 2020 election, winning ten seats.

In, Seymour was re-elected and the ACT Party increased its representation to 11 seats, the best result in the party's history.

ACT subsequently formed a coalition government with the National and New Zealand First parties.

Under the coalition arrangement, Seymour will assume the position of deputy prime minister from 31 May 2025, replacing Winston Peters.