Phil Donato has been comfortably reelected to the seat of Orange following the NSW State Election on Saturday, March 26.

With about 75 per cent of the vote counted at time of publication, Mr Donato was the clear winner at the polls receiving just under 55 per cent of the primary vote. And in the two-candidate preferred count, Mr Donato had received 73.1 per cent of the vote to Nationals candidate Tony Milleto’s 26.9 per cent.

First elected at a by-election in 2017 and then comfortably re-elected at the 2019 NSW State Elections, Saturday's contest was the first for Mr Donato since resigning from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and running as an independent.

Mr Donato said that it was a very satisfying result and that he was extremely humbled and honoured to be given the privilege to continue to represent this area for the next four years.

“It is really, really satisfying,” Mr Donato said, “and just goes to show that the style and approach in which I do things, the community is happy with. So I get some confidence out of that and that will continue going forward.”

Without the financial backing of a party, Mr Donato ran a bare-bones grass-roots campaign, enlisting the help of family, friends and supporters during the campaign and on election day.

“We had a great team of volunteers and my staff here do a great job in the office and have been working with me for the last six or seven years since I've been elected and my family as well,” Mr Donato said.

“We had to organise everything ourselves, run it all ourselves, completely self-funded it myself, didn't receive any financial or political donations at all.

“My wife, for the last six or seven weeks, was coordinating all the volunteers and rostering, all that sort of stuff… we had great support from the community as well. People came out, put their hands up, wanting to volunteer, man booths, help out as pre-poll, scrutineer.. which, you know, you can't do without that. That's really important.”

While Mr Donato said he expected to see a swing against the Liberal National Government at this election, even he was surprised by the result.

“A lot of people didn't pick it. Even people from Labor, who I know, didn't pick it was going to be as big as that or strong as that,” he said. 

“I think people have had a gutful of the major parties to be honest… just the nepotism, cronyism, people have a gutful of ‘jobs for the boys’ or ‘jobs for your mates’ and so I think that leaves a level of resentment and dissatisfaction with voters and cynicism, I suppose towards a lot of the major parties.”

While the exact shape of the new Labor Government is still to be seen, Mr Donato said he has offered his congratulations to Premier Chris Minns and he looks forward to working with Labor and his crossbench colleagues in the coming four years.

“I've known Chris since I've been elected. I've always had a very good relationship with Chris and he's indicated to me that their door’s always open,” Mr Donato said.

“And you know, he knows that numbers are tight and it's in his interest to look after members of the crossbench as best they possibly can. So I think that puts us here in Orange in a very strong position going forward.”