Tākuta Ferris, formerly of Te Pāti Māori, is standing as an independent candidate in the Māori seat for Election 2026. Multiple reports say Ferris was expelled/ousted from Te Pāti Māori in 2025 after internal conflict and disagreements with the party’s leadership.
Ferris previously won the seat as a Te Pāti Māori MP in the 2023 election. The outlets describe her departure from the party as following a public falling out and ongoing disputes within Te Pāti Māori, leading to her expulsion. While details of the internal conflict are not fully outlined in the available summaries, both sources frame the 2025 split as the reason for her running as an independent rather than under Te Pāti Māori’s banner in 2026.
Together, the reports indicate a continuity of Ferris’s aim to represent the seat she won in 2023, but with a change in political affiliation. The election contest is therefore shaped by the departure from Te Pāti Māori and Ferris’s independent candidacy going into 2026.
