The Australian Greens' seat targeting strategy in the 2025 federal election misfired, with setbacks across target seats and limited momentum experienced elsewhere (Jackson and Holloway 2026; Holloway 2025), reversing the gains made in the 2022 election. Yet in 2024, the Green Party of England and Wales (GPE&W) was able to win all four of their target seats in the 2024 general election (Prosser 2025; Miori and Green 2025), as well as all their target seats and councils in the 2026 local government elections. This paper investigates whether and how the targeting strategy and nature of campaigns in target and non-target seats contributed to these outcomes. It also explores questions about minor parties' targeting strategies and effective allocation of limited resources. To do this, we interview candidates and campaigners who worked on Australian Greens and GPE&W campaigns in target and non-target seats, as well as analyse candidate statements across these seat types. This paper extends the currently limited scholarship on minor parties' targeting strategies (Denver et al. 2002; Fisher and Denver 2008).
