Early career (2011-2022) Donnelly began his political career as a candidate for the
Green Party NI in the
2011 local elections for
Larne Borough Council, before leaving the party to join Alliance. Donnelly later ran in the newly formed
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in the
2014 local elections as the Alliance candidate for the Braid constituency, but failed to be elected. Following this, he ran alongside
Stewart Dickson in the
2016 and
2017 Northern Ireland Assembly elections, coming 9th and then 8th - but failing to be elected. He then ran again for Mid and East Antrim District Council in the
May 2019 local election, this time as one of the two Alliance candidates for the Larne Lough District. Donnelly was elected on the first count, polling the second most first preferences in the constituency (1,057 votes) and earning 17.66% of the vote. Later that year, Donnelly replaced Stewart Dickson as the Alliance Party candidate for
East Antrim. He contested the
2019 general election, increasing the Alliance Vote in the constituency by 11.7% and coming second. He reduced incumbent MP
Sammy Wilson's majority from 15,923 in 2017 to 6,716.
Member of the Legislative Assembly (2022–) Donnelly was elected to the 4th seat in East Antrim at the
2022 Assembly election, gaining a seat for Alliance at the expense of the
UUP's
Roy Beggs, elected, alongside running mate Stewart Dickson, on the fifth stage. He polled 4,224 FPVs, an increase from the 1,817 votes he received in 2017. At the
2024 general election, Donnelly further reduced Wilson's majority to just 1,306 votes (3.3%), though also suffered a small decline in his own vote share by 0.4%. ==References==