David Crisafulli will become Queensland's 41st premier after leading the LNP to a historic election victory overnight.
His ascendancy to the state's top job is the final rung in a climb up the political ladder that has been years in the making.
The 45-year-old grew up in Ingham in north Queensland on the family sugar cane farm that his dad still operates to this day.
David Crisafulli grew up in Ingham in north Queensland (Supplied: LNP)
The farm was purchased by his late grandfather Franchesco, who moved to Australia from Italy in 1960.
In a recent interview with the ABC, Mr Crisafulli described his grandfather as his "mentor".
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"The only politics I saw from him is work really hard and life will be good," he said.
Mr Crisafulli started his career in journalism, but subsequently became a politician while still in his 20s — serving as a councillor and later deputy mayor in Townsville.
He entered the state political arena in 2012, when he took out the seat of Mundingburra for the LNP as part of the landslide election victory that swept Campbell Newman to power.
Mr Crisafulli was immediately installed into cabinet following his election to parliament, serving as local government minister.
But he lost his seat just three years later when the Newman government was booted from office, and Labor's Annastacia Palaszczuk became premier.
Mr Crisafulli shifted his family to the Gold Coast, where he successfully challenged sitting MP Verity Barton in a pre-selection fight to become the LNP's candidate for Broadwater.
He returned to parliament as the Member for Broadwater in 2017, serving in then-leader Deb Frecklington's shadow cabinet as tourism spokesman.
When the LNP was defeated in its third straight election loss in 2020, Mr Crisafulli became leader of the party after Ms Frecklington stood aside and he was the only candidate for the job.
The new premier is deeply private when it comes to his family. (Supplied: AAP)
When he took over the leadership, he declared that he wanted to reform the party and put an end to the internal fractures that had destabilised the LNP in the past.
He pushed for women to make up half the candidates running in the 14 most marginal seats not held by the LNP — something that was achieved.
Mr Crisafulli's election win last night marks only the second time the LNP or the conservative side in politics has won a state election in Queensland since 1986.
Throughout the campaign, Mr Crisafulli would repeatedly point to the historical track record of the LNP to frame himself as the underdog in a race where the opposition has consistently led in the polls.
The new premier is deeply private when it comes to his family.
He and his wife Tegan are parents to two teen daughters, who he has deliberately kept out of the public spotlight in his second stint in politics.
His campaign has centred heavily on health, housing, cost of living, and crime — the four issues that he believes were the "battlelines" of the election.
His central campaign pledge has focused on youth crime, with a commitment to sentence juvenile offenders as adults for serious crimes such as murder and manslaughter.
Mr Crisafulli has insisted an LNP government will make no changes to Queensland's abortion laws (Supplied: AAP)
He has dubbed the policy "adult crime, adult time", and has promised to have the laws in place within 100 days.
Mr Crisafulli has also vowed to keep the former Labor government's 50 cent public transport fares, at a cost of more than $1 billion over the next four years.
The new premier has vowed to scrap the path to treaty process, and axe the Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro scheme to save more than $900 million.
During the campaign, he was dogged by questions over his position on abortion.
Mr Crisafulli has repeatedly insisted an LNP government would make no changes to the state's abortion laws, but would not say if his MPs would get a conscience vote if a repeal bill was put forward by the crossbench.
In the final debate of the election campaign, Mr Crisafulli said he supported a woman's right to choose.
The LNP announced $4.5b on funding roads, schools, hospitals, housing and community sports during its campaign. (Supplied: AAP)
He had previously voted against laws in 2018 that decriminalised abortion.
Mr Crisafulli's government will now be responsible for overseeing preparations for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brisbane that were secured by the former Labor government.
He has promised that an independent infrastructure co-ordination authority will conduct a 100-day review of the Games.
The LNP leader has already confirmed that he will abandon the outgoing Labor government's plans to refurbish the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre at Nathan.
He has also left the door open to a rebuild of the Gabba, which was initially meant to be the main arena for the Games until the plan was axed by Steven Miles.