Te Tai Tokerau Party names Kyla Campbell-Kamariera as list candidate
Kyla Campbell-Kamariera will stand as a list candidate for the Te Tai Tokerau Party, the party led by Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.
The announcement was reported on 21 September 2026. Ms Campbell-Kamariera was co-chair of Te Pāti Māori's Te Tai Tokerau electorate executive — the local branch leadership — while Ms Kapa-Kingi held the Te Tai Tokerau electorate as a Te Pāti Māori MP, according to RNZ. Ms Kapa-Kingi has since left Te Pāti Māori to form the Te Tai Tokerau Party and leads it.
Who she is
Ms Campbell-Kamariera affiliates to Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri and Taranaki Tūturu. She serves as chairwoman of Mātihetihe Marae in Mitimiti. Her background includes student politics and university governance. She served as president of the Waikato Students' Union and as a member of the University of Waikato Council. She was one of 10 rangatahi Māori selected to represent Aotearoa at COP30 in Brazil.
Links to Te Pāti Māori
She was named on Te Pāti Māori's party list for the 2023 general election, when she was reported as a 20-year-old ranked at number four, according to 1News. In November 2025, as Te Pāti Māori Te Tai Tokerau Executive co-chair, she publicly pushed back against Party President John Tamihere amid internal party tensions, according to Te Ao News.
The new party so far
The Te Tai Tokerau Party is set to contest the Te Tai Tokerau seat. Its abbreviation is TTTP, as recorded in Electoral Commission notices for party registration applications in June, according to the Electoral Commission. On 5 August 2026 the Commission approved the registration of the party's logo, according to the Electoral Commission. The party maintains an official Facebook page named 'Te Tai Tokerau Party'. On 11 August 2026 it posted a video captioned "“Kia manawa kuaka tātou!”" describing the kuaka as a kaitiaki for the people of Te Tai Tokerau.
The broader context here is list construction and electorate strategy under MMP, where each voter casts an electorate vote and a party vote. A party list works a bit like a team sheet, setting the order candidates enter Parliament from the party vote if the party wins an electorate or crosses the threshold. Recruiting a former electorate co-chair brings organisational knowledge of the northern machinery and an existing profile among rangatahi through student and climate roles. Registration formalities, logo approval and early candidate announcements put the administration in place well before writ day — the formal start of the election period. Whether that turns into party vote share and a competitive campaign will depend on the candidate field, turnout, and how northern voters who previously supported Te Pāti Māori assess the split.
