Patrick Conaghan says his focus will be on advocating for the local community after securing the federal seat of Cowper at the federal election on May 18.
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Going up against heavyweight Independent Rob Oakeshott was always going to be tough, but when the dust settled Mr Conaghan convincingly won Cowper, claiming victory on election night.
In his victory speech he said he would continue to dedicate himself to the electorate which spans from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour - currently the biggest electorate in the nation.
"It is huge, it is momentous and I am so proud of what we have achieved," Mr Conaghan said.
"This campaign was never about Pat Conaghan, it was about the National Party and country people working together to get the best result."
Born and raised in Kempsey, Mr Conaghan's early working career was as a police officer and police prosecutor, and for the last 18 years has been working as a solicitor.
He also served a four-and-a-half year term as a councillor of North Sydney Council when he was a young lawyer.
Mr Conaghan was pre-selected for the seat of Cowper in November 2018, and said his strong connections to the Mid North Coast helped secure his win.
"I don't have words for it. I didn't expect to win. I didn't presume anything. I always thought it was going to be really, really tight but I am very surprised at the overwhelming support up and down the electorate," he said.
"To me, a lot of it was the Kempsey factor. We grew up without a lot. My dad was a doctor and my mum was a nurse and people loved them because they gave back to the community.
"Over the last six months so many people have come up to me and said 'your dad delivered me' or 'your mum was so kind to me' and it made a huge difference.
"I think people identified with me being from Kempsey because despite dad being a doctor, we weren't privileged, we didn't have a pool, we never went on overseas holidays.
"We were just another family and people could see that in me. There is no elitism, there is no tricks."
During the campaign there was some early argy bargy over election signage with Nationals HQ showing signs of frustration amid debate its campaign had been "nasty" and "negative".
However Mr Conaghan said he was proud of the way he personally had run his campaign.
"I am proud of it. On the record I have already said I didn't like the anti-Rob [Oakeshott] stuff. That is not me, but I was part of the team and decisions were made to do that.
"As the candidate I had to work with that but I am open in saying I didn't like it.
"I like Rob and I think he is a good family man and so I think that [negative campaigning] is something we need to work on as a party, but at the end of the day I am not going to take away anything that has been achieved."
He also praised former member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker for his service to the community.
"Luke has been great and he has done so well over the last 17 years. Luke is such a hard worker and has achieved so much for our community."
So what is next? Mr Conaghan says he spent Sunday with his boys and then he will get straight into it with the The Hatch Road being priority number one, followed by the tidal pool.
"Sunday I promised I would go fishing with my boys because they haven't seen much of me over the last six months but then the real work starts.
"It is something new for me, I have never worked in a ministerial office and it will be a huge learning curve but it is something I will embrace and I am looking forward to it.
"I will be getting back to basics, fixing The Hatch Road means so much to me to help the people out there and then yes, the [tidal] pool will get done."
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