An election for the parliamentary leadership of the New Zealand National Party by its caucus was held on 14 July 2020, after incumbent Todd Muller resigned earlier that day citing health reasons. Judith Collins became leader of the National Party and of the Opposition of New Zealand. Background Todd Muller became Leader of the National Party following a party caucus vote on 22 May 2020. Poor polling results for the National Party had led to Muller and Nikki Kaye standing against incumbents Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett for leader and deputy leader respectively. Muller became the third Leader of the Opposition for the 52nd parliament, following Bill English and Simon Bridges. Muller led the National Party in Parliament for 53 days. He reshuffled his shadow cabinet twice, announced policies in preparation for the 2020 New Zealand general election campaign, and dealt with a controversy in the National Party when National MP Hamish Walker and former party president Michelle Boag leaked private information about COVID-19 patients. Muller would later reveal that he suffered severe panic attacks, starting five days after his election, which became worse as the days went on, until he found himself unable to get out of bed. On the morning of 14 July 2020 Muller released a statement announcing his resignation as National Party leader, saying "the role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective." The National Party caucus held an emergency meeting over the Internet on the morning of 14 July 2020 and appointed deputy leader Nikki Kaye as the interim leader pending the convening of an in-person meeting that evening. News site Stuff understood that Muller did not participate in the morning meeting. Candidates Known candidates Judith Collins ran for the leadership position. Collins had officially run for leader twice before, in 2016 and 2018. Mark Mitchell also ran; this was confirmed by Simon Bridges who said that he voted for Mitchell, though Collins would not say if anyone else had run against her in the meeting or not. Gerry Brownlee ran for the deputy position. Stuff understood that Paul Goldsmith had run as well. Newshub reported that Louise Upston had intended to contest the deputy position but withdrew after Collins won the first ballot. As with the leadership contest, Collins would not say who had run for deputy. Amy Adams refused