2025 Wellington mayoral election

← 2022 11 October 2025 2028 →
Turnout	81,574 (49.99%)
Candidate Andrew Little Karl Tiefenbacher Ray Chung Party Labour Independent Independent Together Popular vote 46,016 11,494 8,534 Percentage 56.4% 14.1% 10.5%
Mayor before election Tory Whanau Elected mayor Andrew Little

The2025 Wellington mayoral election was a local election held from 9 September to 11 October inWellington, New Zealand, as part of that year'scity council election andnation-wide local elections. Voters elected themayor of Wellington for the 2025–2028 term of theWellington City Council. Postal voting and thesingle transferable vote system were used.

The incumbent mayorTory Whanau did not run for a second term as mayor, instead running for council in the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward.

Former Labour leaderAndrew Little won the mayoralty in alandslide.

The timeline of electoral events are:^[1]

• Friday 4 July – Candidate nominations open, roll opens for public inspection
• Friday 1 August – Nominations close at midday, electoral roll closes
• Tuesday 9 September – Ballots posted out, voting opens
• Saturday 11 October – Voting closes at midday
• Saturday 11 October – Preliminary results released
• Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 October – Final results declared

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Incumbent mayorTory Whanau had announced she would run for a second term, but later changed her mind afterAndrew Little entered the race.^[2]Ray Chung would contest the election as the candidate from the Independent Together group.

Other candidates looking to contest the mayoralty include business owner Karl Tiefenbacher, former Wellington LIVE media owner Graham Bloxham, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, former city councillor Rob Goulden,^[3][4] and former chartered accountant Alex Baker.^[5][6]

A campaign parodying Independent Together was launched in June 2025, featuring "Pennywize the Rewilding Clown" for mayor, with a campaign website that closely parodied that of the Independent Together website. The parody played onthe character from Stephen King's horror franchiseIt.^[7]

In late July, Bloxham announced that he was withdrawing from the race citing personal attacks.^[8]

Candidate[9]	Photo	Affiliation[a]		Notes
Alex Baker			Independent	Former chartered accountant,[11] also running for councillor in the Motukairangi/Eastern ward[5]
Scott 'Scoot' Caldwell			The Scoot Foundation	Aucklander who visited Wellington for the first time in June 2025.[12][13] Affordable housing and transport advocate.[14][11]
Diane Calvert			Not Affiliated	Incumbent councillor for the Wharangi/Onslow-Western ward since2016. Also running for re-election as a councillor for the Wharangi/Onslow-Western ward.[15][16][11]
Ray Chung			Independent Together[17]	City councillor since 2022, and mayoral candidate in the 2022 election[3][11]
Rob Goulden			My Vision for the City 2050	Former city councillor (1998–2010).[3][11] Also running to be a councillor in the Motukairangi/Eastern general ward.
Josh Harford			Aotearoa New Zealand Silly Hat Party[18]	Deputy leader (Consort), Silly Hat Party. Satirical candidate.[19][7][11]
Kelvin Hastie			Independent	Conservationist and mayoral candidate in the 2022 election.[3][11] Also running to be a councillor for the Wharangi/Onslow-Western general ward.
Andrew Little			Labour[20]	FormerLabour leader andcabinet minister[21][22][11]
Donald McDonald			Mcdone waiting 2coming terms Passover	Previously ran for mayor in 2019[23] and 2022.[24][11] Also running for councillor in the Paekawakawa/Southern general ward.[25]
William Pennywize			Pennywize the Rewilding Clown	Satirical candidate.[19][7][26][11]
Joan Shi			Independent	Previously ran in the 2024 Pukehīnau/Lambton general ward by-election.[27][11] Also running to be a councillor in the Takapū/Northern general ward.
Karl Tiefenbacher			Independent	Businessman and founder of icecream brand Kaffee Eis.[3] Previously ran in the 2024 Pukehīnau/Lambton general ward by-election.[27] Also running to be a councillor in the Motukairangi/Eastern ward.[11]

• John Apanowicz, councillor for the Northern ward since 2022^[28]
• Justin Lester, former mayor (2016–19)^[29]

• Jill Day, President of theLabour Party and former deputy mayor^[30]
• Fleur Fitzsimons, unionist and formerWellington City Councillor for Southern Ward^[31]
• Thomas Nash, regional councillor since 2019 (endorsed Whanau)^[30]
• David Parker, former Labour Party deputy leader and cabinet minister^[32]
• Luke Pierson, founding member of the Vision for Wellington lobby group^[30]
• Nicola Young, councillor for the Lambton ward since 2013 (endorsed Little)^[33]

• Tory Whanau, mayor since 2022 (endorsed Little)^[34]
• Graham Bloxham, owner of Wellington Live Facebook page^[35][3][8]

Former Labour leaderAndrew Little won the mayoralty in alandslide. Businessman Karl Tiefenbacher came in second, with councillorRay Chung in third place.^[39]

• 2025 Wellington local elections

• 2025 New Zealand local elections
• September 2025 in New Zealand
• October 2025 in New Zealand
• Mayoral elections in Wellington

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