At her first press conference after her election as leader, she said that the upcoming election campaign would be "relentless positivity". After her appointment, the party had a large amount of public campagin donations, reaching NZ$700 per minute at its highest. When Ardern became party leader, Labour rose in opinion polls. By late August the party had reached 43 per cent as well as beating the National Party in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade. Critics said that her ideas were similar to Andrew Little's and believed that Labour's sudden increase in popularity was because of her youth and good looks.