Mr May was announced as the candidate on Monday by member for Orange Philip Donato and he will be looking to emulate Mr Donato’s effort at the 2016 Orange byelection where he overcame a significant margin to knock off Nationals’ candidate Scott Barrett.

Mr May said the region had been let down by the Nationals.

“The Nationals have neglected our roads, our schools are under-funded and there is a desperate need for a cash injection in our hospitals,” he said.

“Bathurst is not getting what we deserve, our current member is just saying yes to whatever the city Liberals want.”

Mr May said drought support was a key issue for regional centres and was critical of the Coalition Government for moving too slowly to support farmers.

“The drought has affected me but it’s also affected everyone in our region,” he said.

“This government is spending $2 billion on stadiums in Sydney – that’s twice what’s being spent on drought assistance.”

Mr May said he would spend the seven months until election day on March 23 getting around the electorate and talking to voters about their concerns.

“I’m going to follow what Phil has done, he’s a fantastic representative for the Orange area,” Mr May said.

Mr Donato said Mr May appreciated the difficult job he faced in trying to unseat Bathurst MP Paul Toole, but would not be afraid of hard work.

“Brenden brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this role,” he said.

“He is a born-and-bred local farmer with close community ties.

“He knows he has a hard job ahead of him but coming from a farming background he can identify with the many issues farming families are facing in this drought.”

Mr Donato said his success at the Orange byelection had focused the Nationals’ attention on this region, but believed it was a case of too little, too late for many disaffected voters.

“It’s no use throwing around fistfuls of money when you have deceived people in the past,” Mr Donato said.

“The community needs people who will stand up for what they believe in.”