Denis Napthine Liberal/National coalition Daniel Andrews Labor The 2014 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 29 November 2014, was for the 58th Parliament of Victoria.

This led Paul Austin of the Sydney Morning Herald to speculate that Labor was headed for a long period in the political wilderness.

By the time the writs were dropped, Labor had been leading most opinion polls for almost two years, though Andrews consistently trailed as preferred premier.

With a Coalition MP as Speaker, the government operated with a one-seat margin of 44 seats, until the resignation of Geoff Shaw, the member for Frankston, from the Liberal Party on 6 March 2013.

Their seats were filled by Cesar Melhem,[13] Marg Lewis, Amanda Millar,[14] and Andrew Ronalds[15] respectively, each being appointed by a joint sitting of Parliament.

Twenty-one parties were registered with the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), and all fielded candidates at the 2014 state election:[16]

According to ABC psephologist Antony Green, the Labor-held seats of Bellarine, Monbulk, Ripon and Yan Yean became notionally Liberal.

In early November Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in one of his few Victorian appearances for the Liberals during the campaign, described the election as "a referendum on the East West Link".

[21] Public transport also featured strongly during the campaign, with the parties presenting rival inner-city rail tunnel projects and competing plans to remove railway level crossings to ease road congestion.

Labor election advertising aimed to capitalise on the unpopularity of Australia's Liberal Prime Minister and unpopular federal Liberal policies, while much of the Coalition advertising depicted Andrews as a leader with close ties to the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

A key topic was the proposal for a new Great Forest National Park, that was opposed by the Coalition and was not supported by Labor.

The Greens supported the new park, as well as stronger action on climate change and phase-out of coal fired power stations.

Following the election, the seats of Frankston and Prahran were initially too close to call, with around a hundred votes separating candidates.