Richard Lewis (New Zealand politician)

Richard Lewis (born 1969) is the leader of The Family Party, a political party in New Zealand, and was formerly leader of the now deregistered Destiny New Zealand, a conservative right-wing Christian party associated with Destiny Church.^[1]

Lewis was born in Auckland, New Zealand. At the age of twenty-two, he joined the New Zealand Police. He served as a police officer for eleven years. In 2001, he became the manager of Destiny Social Services, a branch of the Auckland-based Destiny Church. In 2003 Lewis was instrumental in the establishment of the Destiny New Zealand political party, the origins of which derived primarily from Destiny Church which is headed by Brian Tamaki.

The party went on to stand 42 candidates in electorates nationwide, being one of only 3 parties to stand in all 7 Māori electorates. While the party did not achieve representation at the 2005 general elections, it was the highest polling party outside of parliament.

In the 2005 election, Lewis stood as his party's candidate for Manukau East and come third behind the two major party candidates from Labour and National with 1,111 votes (3.4%).

In 2007, Destiny New Zealand was disbanded, with Lewis instead becoming leader of the newly formed The Family Party.

However, The Family Party failed to gain access into parliament again in the 2008 election. Lewis, who stood as the candidate for Manurewa, gained only 514 votes.

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