Hannah Ferguson on her long-shot bid to unseat Anthony Albanese in Grayndler

Hannah Ferguson has just left the home of an older couple who disagree that she should run for parliament when I meet her at the Lewisham West light rail stop on the Greenway in Sydney’s inner-west. It is a perfect sunny winter afternoon and we are in the geographical centre of Grayndler, the electorate she wants to take from the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

The couple emailed Ferguson after she announced her plans to run, declaring, she says, that they liked her but didn’t agree with her tilt for parliament. She tells me she asked to sit down with them and explain herself, and believes they’ve come around to the idea of her running – and might even support her.

“A lot of people that I’ve been meeting with, they say ‘I’m so confused by you meeting me’, and I’m like, why are we at this stage of politics where people are confused that I want to meet, sit down and have a cup of tea with them?” It has been predominantly Labor voters reaching out, she says, those who are “fed up and feel a bit politically homeless”.

“Politicians feel very far removed, I think, for most people.”

Ferguson, 28, has become a national media and political figure, independent of traditional news outlets and political parties. She founded progressive social media outfit Cheek Media – which now reaches hundreds of thousands of followers across several media platforms – at just 22, and published two books in two years before she turned 26. The popular Gen-Z commentator now sees herself as part of a new generation of independents challenging left-wing seats. Her run was officially announced on social media just a few weeks ago, as she began organising town hall meetings with locals to unofficially start her campaign. Her first, with more than 130 people, had sold out within an hour.

Ferguson wears a plain white tee and a pair of jeans for the interview. Wardrobe options are somewhat “impossible”, she laments. A suit, she says, makes her look too much like a “teal” – a group she is trying to separate herself from (she has ruled out accepting money from Climate 200). She just wants to look like a “normal person”.

Anthony Albanese has held the seat of Grayndler, a progressive and highly educated electorate, since before Ferguson was born and has for the last few elections won on first preferences alone. The Greens generally come a distant second, claiming about 20 to 22% of the primary vote. Last year, the high-profile Greens candidate Hannah Thomas secured just over 25%, but will not run for the seat again. It’s going to be an uphill battle, to say the least.

Ferguson looks me dead in the eye and says she believes she can win the seat from the prime minister.

“Oh I can win. I would not do something unless I was going to do it fully,” she says without hesitation.

“Albo is chasing One Nation to the bottom right now so … wouldn’t the best response we can have be to encourage more people to stand up and shift the dialogue. Shouldn’t we be asking politicians to fight to retain that privilege of representing a community?”

As we walk, there’s the cacophony of light rails, trains, and cars moving around us and the roar of planes flying closely above – it’s quintessential inner-west. We keep walking to get away from the noise of the tracks.

At six foot two, it’s not hard to notice Ferguson on the path. She stands tall, doesn’t slouch but leans in a little to listen to my questions. There’s recognition from a few passersby. Two separate women, one riding and one walking her dog do a double take, one yells out “Oh my God, I love you!”, the other, “you’re doing great sweetie!” as they go past. Ferguson, warm and friendly, shouts back “I love you too!” and “thank you!”, and says the interaction isn’t uncommon.

Ferguson says she is an open book, and she means it. “Once you get to the vibrator selling, what is there left?” she laughs. She doesn’t seem afraid to post emotionally raw videos of herself on social media, and shared her experience of having an abortion in the Guardian in 2024.

“There’s a challenge for me in pursuing a political campaign because I will have to change how open I can be about my life,” she says. “That’s also changed over the last couple of years where I used to be so open, like it was ridiculous, I thought not telling someone something was almost like lying, whereas it’s actually just having a boundary.”

The social media star initially announced a run for the Senate in May 2025, before pivoting to the lower house. One seasoned political observer called it naivety – Ferguson would need about 700,000 votes to win a Senate seat in NSW.

Ferguson may have some political naivety to shed before the next federal election, likely in 2028. She wants to put together a “really big” campaign team, and has already received offers of help from locals. But she claims she’s not yet focused on fundraising – which will enable her to pay for advisers – or bigger-picture logistics. She wants at least 1,000 volunteers for the campaign when it takes off, and there will be no leveraging of Cheek Media for her own political message, she promises.

“I’ve got a long runway here and I think at least for the next six months it’s all about community building, it’s not about strategising. It’s about, what can I do to meet everyone in the electorate that I possibly can?”

Asked whether there’s any polling being done, she is not planning on any yet but says “hopefully someone does”.

On policy, Ferguson says she’ll use input from the community, including academics living in the electorate who have reached out since the announcement. But “the three Gs – gas, gambling and Gaza,” are coreprinciples she says– it has the hallmark of a catchy slogan. Those principles have landed well in the electorate so far, she says.

She wants her campaign to mimic the hype and excitement of the US progressive poster child Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor elected in late 2025.

I ask if she sees herself as a future Mamdani, “No!” she shakes her head vehemently. But he is a political hero.

“Our politics isn’t considered very cool. What Zohran Mamdani has done in New York is make politics cool and friendly and sociable, and I think progressive movements in Australia haven’t picked up on that,” she says.

“I’m not Zohran Mamdani, I’m not that cool, that man is an amazing communicator and very sexy. I’m not claiming that at all, but I think there’s an opportunity for me to really look at the way he communicated and made people feel and that’s the bar I want to set”.

Mamdani’s world is in many senses a far cry from her own. Ferguson was born in Grayndler but then moved to regional NSW with her mum after her parents divorced. Her mum has a mobile bra-fitting service in Orange and her dad works as a truck driver in Queensland. She says both have friends who have considered voting for One Nation, and her parents were conservative voters until 2022.

The solution? Having a conversation and a beer.

“I think one of the hardest parts of existing in online spaces is that what a lot of men may know about me is that I’m a feminist online and what that conjures up … is that I’m harsh, unfriendly and un-fun,” Ferguson says.

“I express anger about violence against women, I express anger about the issues I care about, but I think one of the best things I can do, especially what I do with my dad or his friends is I ring them and we go for beers and we have a fun time and we discuss things, even if there’s elephants in the room.

“I am really trying to overcome that [online discourse] by having healthier political discussions. I want to run themed events that are like, ‘bring your conservative dad who disagrees with me’.”

She acknowledges being in “murky territory” when it comes to continuing her work leading Cheek, a media outlet offering political coverage, while campaigning. Ferguson says she’ll step back from her business more once she’s officially launched the campaign, and separate entirely from it three to six months before polling day.

Either way, Ferguson admits her ambitious political run alongside running a mini-media empire can take a toll mentally, and at times means pundits can question her credibility. But she claims there are double standards.

“I beat myself up so much, and it’s the thing that keeps me up at night and yet I’m holding myself to a higher standard than anyone on the other side. We don’t ask these questions of people on the right, really.”

“I know I’m wearing multiple hats and I’m struggling to wear them.”

As we make our way back towards the light rail station, now walking uphill, Ferguson is cognisant of the battle ahead. She says the biggest challenge is the “geographical opportunity to get across and meet as many people as possible”, but with at least 12 months to build momentum before the campaign, she has time on her side.

“I’m running a marathon, not a sprint”.