On 18 May 2019, during the federal election, Abbott lost his seat of Warringah to independent candidate and former Olympic skier Zali Steggall. This came despite the seat being traditionally conservative; it had been held by the Liberals and their predecessors without interruption since its creation in 1922. Abbott went into the election holding Warringah on a seemingly insurmountable margin of 61 percent. However, he lost over 12 percent of his primary vote from 2016, and finished over 4,100 votes behind Steggall on the first preference count. This deficit proved too much for Abbott to overcome, and Steggall defeated him on the ninth count after Labor preferences flowed overwhelmingly to her. The swing against Abbott was large enough that he would have suffered a swing of nine percent in a "traditional" two-party contest with Labor, the first time that Warringah had been marginal against Labor in its history.