The Accidental MP: How Steph Cooke Won a Seat She Never Expected To
Steph Cooke never planned a life in politics. The story of the 2017 Cootamundra by-election — a protest vote, a halved margin, and a win she didn't see coming.
Steph Cooke did not grow up planning to be a politician. She planned to build a business — and she did. Politics happened almost by accident.
"I never planned to go into politics"
When her predecessor announced her retirement, people in the community started approaching Steph with the same message: you'd be really great at that, you should put your hand up. She had only a few days to decide.
She put her hand up — and, by her own admission, didn't expect what came next.
"I sort of put my hand up for this not expecting to win. My first thought was, oh my goodness — what have I done?"
Winning into a wall of anger
The timing could hardly have been worse. Cooke was elected at the Cootamundra by-election on 14 October 2017, into communities that were, in her word, "rocked." Forced council mergers and amalgamations had landed; the greyhound industry had just been shut down. Running for the Nationals as part of the government, she could feel the anger as she went door to door asking for votes.
"The margin of this seat was more than halved," she recalls. "There was a real protest vote. I could sense the anger in the communities as I moved around."
She describes almost falling over the line — a "Steven Bradbury," as she puts it. Not a mandate so much as a narrow, hard-won chance to prove herself.
No grace period
What she did with that chance says everything. There was a three-week gap between the by-election and being sworn into the New South Wales Parliament. Most people would exhale. Steph refused to waste it.
"I thought, well, I'm not going to sit back and waste three weeks. I have to hit the ground running." The very next day she turned up at the local Cowra show — and says she's been turning up, somewhere in the electorate, every single day since.
It's the origin story of a particular kind of MP: one who never assumed the job was hers, and has been earning it daily ever since.
Part of a longer conversation. Read the full Steph Cooke deep-dive, or watch the episode →.