Westland District Council Pugh was elected to the
Westland District Council in 1998 and served two terms before being elected as the district's first woman mayor in
2004, succeeding John Drylie. In
2007 she was returned as mayor unopposed. She stood down at the
2013 elections and was succeeded as mayor by Michael Havill. While serving as mayor of Westland District Council, Pugh was accused of failure to declare a financial conflict of interest.
Parliament First term, 2016–2017 Pugh contested the
West Coast-Tasman electorate unsuccessfully for the
New Zealand National Party in the
2014 general election. Ranked number 52 on the
National Party list, she just missed out on a
list seat in the final results. but National's proportion of the
party vote reduced in the final results and the
Green Party's
Steffan Browning won the seat she would have taken. Pugh remained first in line should a vacancy arise in a list seat held by a National Party MP during the
51st New Zealand Parliament, and following
Tim Groser's resignation in December 2015 she was sworn in as a member of parliament on 9 February 2016 after the summer
recess.
Second term, 2018–2020 Pugh contested the West Coast-Tasman electorate unsuccessfully in the
2017 general election. She ranked higher, at 44, in the
National Party list, and preliminary results again showed National had won enough seats (58) for her to gain one. However, the official count gave National two fewer seats than the preliminary count, and she did not return to parliament. Due to her history of appearing in and then out of parliament due to special votes, Pugh describes herself as the '
Yo-yo MP'. Pugh was again in line to enter parliament if there were resignations, and she and several other "next-in-line" list candidates attended National's parliamentary
caucus retreat in February 2018 to help ease their transition into the caucus should they enter parliament. In March 2018,
Bill English resigned from parliament and Pugh was declared elected as a list MP.
Simon Bridges, who was
National Party leader from 2018 to 2020, described Pugh as "fucking useless" in a phone call with
Jami-Lee Ross, which was recorded and posted on
Facebook by Ross in October 2018. Bridges apologised to her after the recording became public. She voted with the majority against Bridges in the
May 2020 leadership election.
Third term, 2020–2023 Pugh contested the West Coast-Tasman electorate unsuccessfully in the
2020 general election. This time, at 19 on the
party list, both preliminary and final results gave her a list seat. She had been anticipating missing out again after the counting of special votes for the final results and had already started packing her Wellington apartment, which she would have to send back. The National caucus elected her as its Junior Whip on 10 November. In February 2022 Pugh expressed support through Facebook for
Convoy 2022, a protest group who travelled to Wellington to occupy the grounds of parliament, protesting vaccine mandates, with some opposing the vaccine itself. Pugh later amended the post, then deleted it, and said she did not realise many of the protesters were against COVID-19 vaccination. After the occupation of parliament grounds was over, Pugh said that "we [the National Party] had one or two members [party members, not members of parliament] in there talking with protestors on an almost daily basis... we wrote to the only email address we had and said we would enter dialogue as soon as they stopped the unlawful aspects to their protest." A National Party spokesperson said that "National did not send anyone—MPs, members or otherwise—to enter in discussions with protestors. However we are aware of party members who attended the protest of their own accord".
Fourth term, 2023–present Final results from the 2023 general election indicate that Pugh had won the electorate of West Coast-Tasman, beating the incumbent
Damien O'Connor by a margin of 1,017 votes. On 6 December 2023, she was appointed
Assistant Speaker of the
House of Representatives. On 11 June 2024, Pugh was confronted by a group of protesters who were opposed to the
National-led coalition government's proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill in the
Golden Bay town of
Tākaka. Pugh was meeting with members of the Tākaka Community Board to foster relations with the local government body. During the incident, Pugh was allegedly assaulted by a male protester who pushed his poster against her face. On 23 January 2026, Pugh confirmed that she would retire from Parliament at the
2026 general election. == Views and positions ==