Aperahama Edwards of Ngātiwai will run for the Te Tai Tokerau seat in the 2026 general election, Te Pāti Māori announced today.
This came after veteran politician Hone Harawira confirmed he wouldn't be standing as the Te Pāti Māori candidate last week and instead endorsed Edwards.
Edwards said he was standing because "our people need a voice that will not bend when Te Tiriti is under attack".
"Te Tai Tokerau deserves representation that is courageous, principled and grounded in the people."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said Edwards was one of the visible leaders of the protest movement against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti.
He will go up against sitting MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who left Te Pāti Māori to form her own Te Tai Tokerau Party earlier this month, as well as Labour's Willow-Jean Prime and the Greens' Hūhana Lyndon.
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Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party was grateful to Edwards for putting his hand up "in this political climate".
"He is not new to this mahi. He has carried the kaupapa in our communities, on our whenua, across our moana, and in the spaces where Māori rights and futures are being decided," she said.
He has worked in kaupapa Māori advocacy, iwi and hapū development, te reo revitalisation, ocean conservation, and strategic representation.
"He has stood at the front of the fight for Te Tiriti, for He Whakaputanga, for te iwi Māori, and for the future our mokopuna deserve."
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