‘They were having a go at Victorians’: how the Liberals miscalculated the ‘anti-Dan’ election strategy

Liberal strategists believed Victorians wanted to send Daniel Andrews a message. Instead voters swung away from them in several blue-ribbon seats

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Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, appeared once alongside the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, during the six-week election campaign and spoke for just three-and-a-half minutes, during which he reminded voters of the state's darkest time" - its several lockdowns.

It was a bold move, given the pandemic had been conspicuously absent from the campaign up to that point, partly due to fears within Labor that it could lose votes in blue-collar areas worst affected by it.