Six months before the 1999 general election, Frank Grover, leader of the Liberal Party, a component of the Alliance, defected to Christian Heritage, giving it one seat in Parliament. Grover had won election as an Alliance list MP in 1996. High-profile broadcaster Philip Sherry also joined the party in 1999 and stood in the number 2 position on the party list. Christian Heritage gained 2.4% of the vote in the 1999 election, well short of the threshold for entering Parliament, although enough to make it easily the largest party outside parliament.