Member of Parliament Strange stood unsuccessfully for a seat on the
Hamilton City Council in
2013. He sought the Labour nomination in
Hamilton East at the , but was unsuccessful. Instead, he stood in
Taupō where he was defeated by the incumbent, National's
Louise Upston. He was ranked 54 on the Labour
party list, too low to be elected. Strange was selected as the Labour candidate in the electorate for the and was placed 36 on Labour's party list. Strange did not win the electorate, but entered parliament as a
list MP. In his first term he served variously on the select committees for education and workforce; governance and administration; foreign affairs, defence and trade; transport and infrastructure; and finance and expenditure. In July 2018 Strange said he expected a Hamilton to Auckland rail commuter service to be operating by the end of 2019. The opening of the train service,
Te Huia, was delayed to 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. During the
2020 New Zealand general election, Strange successfully contested the
Hamilton East electorate, defeating long-time National incumbent
David Bennett by a final margin of 2,973 votes. In his second term he was appointed chair of the economic development, science and innovation committee and member of the governance and administration committee. In mid-December 2022, Strange announced that he would not be contesting the
2023 New Zealand general election and would step down at the end of the 2020–2023 term. Strange attributed his resignation plans to the strain caused by his job travel requirements on family life. He also stated that he was "better suited for government than opposition" in response to polls forecasting a National-
ACT electoral victory at the 2023 election. His
valedictory speech discussed his results in Parliamentary sports teams, expressed support for a four-year Parliamentary term instead of three, and said that New Zealanders "shouldn’t rule... out"
becoming one country with Australia.
After parliament Strange was elected as a
Hamilton city councillor for the East ward in the
2025 local elections. ==Political views==