The Canberra Liberals have preselected a country music singer to represent them at the next federal election, with Leanne Castley to campaign against Labor's Andrew Leigh.
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Ms Castley won the votes of the party members over Sean Kikkert, husband of ACT shadow families and multicultural affairs minister Elizabeth Kikkert.
As well as being a musician, Ms Castley is also a project manager at Citadel Group in Canberra. Having spent most of her life in Canberra, Ms Castley now lives in Palmerston and has two children, a daughter aged 16, and a son, aged 21.
Following the endorsement of Senator Zed Seselja and Robert Gunning to contest the upper house, with Ed Cocks to represent the party in Bean, Thursday's decision means the party only needs to finalise its candidate for Canberra to confirm its full team to contest ACT seats at the next election.
Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh won Fenner comfortably last election, and is expected to do so again despite changes in the boundaries for federal electorates in the territory, but Ms Castley said she isn't running just to make up the numbers.
"I am absolutely one hundred per cent committed to challenging for the seat and give it every shot that I can. I think its important to be in the electorate and let people know there's a Liberal candidate that's strong and relates to people," Ms Castley said.
A member of the party since 2015, Ms Castley said she decided to run as the timing was good with her family and she could give the campaign a lot of her time.
"I wanted to stand up for people like myself, working mums, working dads, people in the trenches, and my values align so tightly with the Liberal Party - hard work, people who are willing to get up each day and give it their best shot."
Labor and the Greens have already completed their preselections ahead of the next federal election, expected to be in May next year.
