He appeared out of nowhere a couple of months before the election, but in his first time standing New Zealand First Tukituki candidate Joe Kairau achieved the third highest number of votes (1789) in the electorate.
He said party supporters in Tukituki could take lots of positives from this weekend's results, including that NZ First had gained a major role in the make-up of the next Government.
Tukituki also delivered a party vote 6 per cent higher than the national average for NZ First and a further increase from 2014.
"That's huge and so it's mission accomplished on that front," he said.
"Locally New Zealand First had not run a candidate in Tukituki for 20 years - coming in immediately behind the two major parties speaks well of our electorate campaign."