Green MP Hūhana Lyndon is campaigning in Te Tai Tokerau as new polling points to increased Green Party support among Māori voters heading into the final month of Election 2026.
A recent MATA-Horizon poll of 1,089 Māori voters found the Greens on 28 percent for the party vote among respondents on the Māori roll, narrowly ahead of Labour on 27 percent and Te Pāti Māori on 16 percent. The survey was conducted between 8 and 18 September and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The result represents a notable shift from the 2023 election, although other recent Māori polling has produced different results. A Whakaata Māori-Curia survey conducted from late August to early September had Te Pāti Māori leading among Māori-roll respondents on 29 percent, Labour on 27 percent and the Greens on 16 percent, highlighting the need to treat individual polls as snapshots rather than predictions.
The changing numbers come as Te Pāti Māori pursues its one-person party list strategy, naming General Secretary Lance Norman as its sole additional list candidate outside its seven Māori electorate candidates. The party is encouraging supporters to give their candidate vote to Te Pāti Māori while choosing either the Greens or Labour for their party vote.
That strategy has added another dimension to the contest for the Māori party vote, with commentators debating how much of the Greens’ increased support reflects strategic voting and how much is being driven by the party’s policies and Māori candidates.
Lyndon, who has whakapapa to Ngātiwai, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Whātua, Waikato-Tainui and Pare Hauraki, is standing for the Greens in Te Tai Tokerau. Her campaign priorities include housing, economic resilience, renewable energy and climate resilience, alongside opposition to fast-track projects affecting whenua and taonga.
Lyndon joined Waatea to discuss what she is hearing from whānau across the North, whether the polling represents a genuine shift toward the Greens among Māori voters and what the increasingly contested Māori vote could mean as election day approaches.
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