Conservative candidate Harriet Cross has been hitting doors across Gordon and Buchan for the last year in her fight to turn the seat blue.
The 33-year-old rising star is seen as one of the party’s best hopes of gaining a seat – despite a nightmare campaign across the UK for Rishi Sunak.
Speaking to the Press and Journal while campaigning in Oldmeldrum, she says the newly redrawn constituency is a “prime target” for the party.
And earlier this week she was joined by former Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson on the doors in Ellon.
“It’s an absolute target seat for us. It is a wafer-thin majority”, Ms Cross said.
She is going head to head with SNP candidate Richard Thomson on July 4.
He won the seat in 2019 with a majority of 819 over Tory incumbent Colin Clark.
And polls suggest the seat is all to play for, even with predictions of a dismal set of results for the Conservatives nationally.
Boundary changes mean the constituency, which includes areas such as Inverurie and Ellon, will now take in inland areas of the former Banff and Buchan seat.
Meanwhile, parts of the former Gordon seat which were favourable to the SNP now fall under the Aberdeen North boundaries.
Both changes could benefit Ms Cross.
Who is Harriet Cross?
Born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Ms Cross moved to West Cork, Ireland, where her mother is from, when she was about five years old. In her mid-teens, the family moved again to Aberdeenshire.
After studying zoology at Imperial College London, Ms Cross completed a Masters in rural land economy at Reading University.
She worked in Cambridge for a few years, but keen to return to the north-east, she moved back around 2018 when a job opportunity as a rural surveyor opened up.
Ms Cross – who featured in our cross-party Generation Next series – said there was no single “lightning moment” leading to her into a life of politics, just a desire to change things around her for the better.
Her priorities include protecting industries such as farming, and oil and gas, as well as pushing for the protection of local healthcare.
“I’ve always lived rurally and I think what really drives me is I want to make living rurally as attractive and easy as living in cities”, she said.
“Obviously, it’s different, but that doesn’t mean you should have poor quality schools, healthcare, or more dangerous roads.”
‘Voters can see bigger picture’
Ms Cross stood as a candidate for the party in the 2021 Holyrood election for Aberdeen Donside. While unsuccessful, it gave her experience of elections.
Last June, she was named the party’s candidate for Gordon and Buchan.
She has been encouraged that the party’s “core vote” is still there.
“They can see the bigger picture, see we’re the only party to beat the SNP and prevent an independence mandate”, she said.
But the Tories have had a bleak campaign nationally.
Ms Cross said she is “not going to pretend” the issues don’t get brought up on the doors, but claims that it’s not as often as some would imagine.
She said: “It’s certainly not every door, it’s certainly not every other door.
“If it’s our voters, they tend to say we’re not happy, but we’re still voting for you.”
SNP say race is ‘close’
Speaking to the P&J during a campaign stop in Kintore, Mr Thomson, the SNP’s candidate, admits the race is “close” and that he is “working hard for every vote”.
He is confident voters are desperate to get the Conservatives out by voting SNP.
Mr Thomson said: “They’re determined to get rid of the worst government that any of us can remember in our lifetimes.”
He added: “I can stand quite happily on my record as a backbencher, frontbencher, and constituency MP, standing up for the key interests of the north-east.
“Whether that’s the energy sector, or whether that is in the rural economy, and trying to reverse the harms of Brexit.”
Other candidates standing in this seat are Nurul Hoque Ali (Labour), Kris Callander (Reform) and Conrad Wood (Liberal Democrats).
See every candidate where you live in Scotland by using this map.
Read more:
Conversation