On 22 May 2020, following poor poll results for the party during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, the National Party held an emergency caucus meeting and voted to oust both leader Simon Bridges and deputy leader Paula Bennett, replacing them with Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye, respectively. Less than two months later, Muller resigned citing that his position had "become untenable from a health perspective". This came after a series of gaffes and scandals surrounding Muller and the National caucus during his tenure, triggering the second leadership election in as many months. He was succeeded by Judith Collins. Kaye, who served as interim leader during the hours between Muller's resignation and Collins's election, was succeeded by Gerry Brownlee. Collins led the party through the 2020 election, but was unable to recoup polling losses seen by the party throughout 2020 in time for the election, leading to the party losing 23 seats and suffering the second worst defeat in its history. Brownlee, who was the party campaign manager, lost his electorate seat, making it back as an MP via the party list and resigning as deputy leader 2 weeks later. He was replaced by Shane Reti, while Collins vowed to stay on as leader into the next election.