, the division's namesake The division was created in 1984 as essentially a reconfigured version of the old
Division of Darling Downs, which had existed since Federation. It is named in honour of
Sir Littleton Groom, who represented Darling Downs with only one short break from 1901 to 1936 and served as
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. The seat has never elected a
Labor member in either of its incarnations as Darling Downs or Groom. Toowoomba itself (particularly, the northern suburbs) has pockets of Labor support and was represented by Labor at state level as late as 2012. However, it is nowhere near enough to overcome the conservative bent of the rural areas. Groom's electors have historically been
socially conservative. In 2017, it was one of only three electorates in Queensland to vote against the
Marriage Survey. However, sentiment had begun to shift in the 2022 federal election. The election showed a strong increase in votes for independent candidates, with the two-candidate preferred result indicating local independent candidate, Suzie Holt, securing 43.11% of the vote, following distribution of preferences. This was despite Holt having a low primary vote of 8.26% and coming fourth in first preference votes. Psephologist Antony Green described this electoral achievement by Holt as "startling". It was the second time that the
Coalition's hold on Groom had been remotely threatened in its present incarnation; in 2007, the Liberals were held to 58.2 percent of the two-party vote despite winning enough primary votes to retain the seat outright. Before 2025, the 2007 election was the only time that the Coalition won less than 62 percent of the two-party vote in the seat's present incarnation. ==Members==