Orange woman Heather Dunn is Labor's candidate for NSW State Election

Ms Dunn became involved with the party a year before moving to the city in 2016 and said she hoped to bring a fresh face to the campaign.

"There were discussions back and forth," she said when asked how her candidacy came about.

"We discussed the federal campaign earlier in the year and had seen how Sarah Elliott got involved and raised issues and that really opened my eyes up to wanting to run and make sure that I'm the voice.

"There were discussions with me and a couple of other people and I suppose I was the standout candidate."

Ms Dunn already has some experience with political campaigns, having run on Jeff Whitton's ticket in 2021 for the Orange City Council election.

She was unable to really make a mark that time around, but believed that experience would help her on this occasion.

"I think it gives me an awareness of what to expect a little bit," Ms Dunn said.

"With the council elections, you can have eight people running, so this is going to be a lot more personal and the issues between local government and state government can vary quite a bit, so I think it's definitely discussing different issues."

On that topic of issues, what points does the Labor candidate wants to get across in the next three months before people hit the polling booths?

"I want to see some change in the area. There's issues like teacher shortages, domestic violence is on the rise, housing affordability," she said.

"There's minimal local music, there's lots of niche issues that aren't being touched.

"The lack of ambulances; there's six ambulances for 40,000 people. Wanting to raise awareness for those issues and making sure we're getting the change that we need for our community."

She also noted a desire to see a reduction in the amount of administration work that school teachers have to carry out "so they're in the classroom longer."

Ms Dunn is the third candidate to throw their hat in the ring, with standing Orange City councillor Tony Mileto running for the Nationals, as well as incumbent Phil Donato, who announced on Monday that he would run as an independent rather than with the backing of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party.

"I think I'm a fresh face with fresh ideas," Ms Dunn said.

"Tony has been around for a long time and so has Phil. I'm a young female who hasn't been around before which could be a hinderance, but I think it also gives me the ability to care about things that other people may not care about."

Ms Dunn, who launched her campaign during the first week of December, said she was "hopeful" of how the election would play out.

"It's been rewarding. I've found out about some issues that I didn't realise were issues," she said of the campaign so far.

"Even if I'm not elected, I'm going to be able to develop policy and bring it up through the branch and make sure people are aware of the issues."

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