Maria Kovacic has stepped down as the New South Wales Liberal party president to contest the Senate vacancy caused by the death of Jim Molan.
She is expected to face off against a wide open field, including her fellow moderate and former NSW government minister Andrew Constance.
Guardian Australia can reveal that the factionally unaligned Simon Kennedy, a former partner at the consulting firm McKinsey and the Liberal party’s unsuccessful candidate for Bennelong, will also throw his hat into the ring. A number of conservatives, including the controversial Warringah candidate Katherine Deves and Jess Collins, an ally of the state MP Anthony Roberts, are believed to have nominated before Thursday’s deadline.
Warren Mundine, a leading advocate against the Indigenous voice, told Guardian Australia he had decided not to run; while Gisele Kapterian, a moderate, is also understood to have withdrawn.
The former Lindsay MP Fiona Scott and James Brown, a former army officer and national security expert, were both actively lobbying colleagues for the nomination, while the former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma was also weighing a run.
Mary Lou-Jarvis, a former NSW Liberal vice-president, has argued internally she should get the position because she ran fifth on the party’s Senate ticket at the 2022 election.
One NSW Liberal source told Guardian Australia it was “a crowded field with multiple serious, credible candidates”.
Molan’s unexpected death, just one year into his six-year term, and the focus on the NSW state election have been blamed by party factions for disorganisation when it comes to choosing a candidate.
Moderate support is believed to be split. A majority is thought to be behind Kovacic, but many are now supporting Constance, who narrowly lost the south coast seat of Gilmore to Labor’s Fiona Phillips at the 2022 federal election.
While Molan belonged to the conservatives, many in the party have argued he can be replaced by a candidate from either main faction, as a further vacancy is expected with the moderate senator Marise Payne’s retirement and this will balance the ledger.
On Monday Deves, whose comments about transgender children helped derail the Liberals’ federal campaign, presented herself as heir apparent to Molan in an interview with Sky News.
Deves noted that Molan “comes from the conservative politics, as do I”. “He had a very distinguished career in the military – I have read his book.
“I think that what happened to me in the federal election, I can demonstrate to the people that I would represent, that I would go in there fighting,” Deves said.
“I do align myself with some of the values that Jim had, particularly around issues of defending our freedom of speech, defending our great nation, standing up for aspirational Australian families and standing up for common sense.”
Kovacic, who was unsuccessful in her tilt for the federal seat of Parramatta, stepped down as president on Thursday.
She wrote that she was “proud” of her work to “advance the principles of Liberalism and to make a positive difference in the lives of the people of New South Wales, including holding Labor to a minority government after 12 years in opposition”.
A member of the NSW state executive told Guardian Australia the party had to pick a woman, naming Kovacic and Kapterian as strong contenders.
“We have to choose a highly professional, articulate woman … we’ve got a lot of them.”
The member said it would send a message that the party was not listening to the community if a man was chosen, further alienating voters the party needed to win back.
