Nominations closed on 24 February 2023 with three candidates: Kate Forbes, Ash Regan, and Humza Yousaf being presented to the electorate of party members.

Sturgeon's government advocated for another Scottish independence referendum, but in 2022 the UK Supreme Court ruled they did not have the legal standing to hold one without agreement from Westminster.

[11] On 2 March, John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, and only person other than Sturgeon to be in Cabinet since the SNP came to power in 2007, also announced that after 16 years he planned to leave Government following the contest.

[1] Sturgeon said that the timing of her decision was determined by an impending special SNP conference to decide the party's strategy on independence, which had been due to take place on 19 March 2023.

[17] Among others, the leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, Stephen Flynn, called for the conference to be postponed following Sturgeon's resignation.

[26] Before the leadership election, the SNP government in Scotland and their coalition partners in the Scottish Green Party were criticised by critics on the right of being "anti-growth" with a rejection of new drilling for oil and gas, a bottle recycling scheme, and curbs on advertising alcohol.

Meanwhile, critics on the left have accused the government of adopting neoliberal economic policies, selling off green energy resources, and supporting free ports.

[26] The SNP's strategy for achieving Scottish independence, the central goal of the party, was expected to be one of the main issues in the leadership campaign.

There was considerable opposition within the party towards Sturgeon's plan to treat the next UK general election in Scotland as a de facto referendum on independence.

[26] As part of the power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens, Sturgeon committed to prioritising reform to gender recognition law, having delayed previous work on the issue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[35] After Sturgeon announced her resignation, Regan and the SNP MP Joanna Cherry, also opposed to the bill, argued that former members who had recently left the party should be allowed to rejoin and take part in the leadership vote.

[38] Out for Independence, the SNP's LGBTQ+ wing stated that they were "incredibly disappointed with the way this leadership campaign has been conducted and the tone and language that have been adopted toward the LGBTQ+ community.

[43] On 19 February, Brown ruled himself out of the leadership contest, stating "he could better serve the party in his current post" as depute leader.

Yousaf was seen as the continuity candidate, supporting the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, but he did not commit to the idea of using the next general election as a de facto referendum.

Regan opposed the Gender Recognition Reform bill but supported a more aggressive version of the de facto referendum plan.

[62] Members of the SNP expressed concern over Forbes's membership of the Free Church of Scotland, an evangelical Calvinist denomination with socially conservative positions on abortion and LGBT issues.

[55] Forbes called criticism of her religious views "illiberal discourse" and said that "if my faith is the only thing that people can find to attack, that suggests that my competence, my vision and my experience, speak for themselves".

[71] On 20 February she said that she would not have supported the Gender Recognition Reform bill in its current form and would have resigned from Sturgeon's cabinet if she had not been on maternity leave during the vote.

[77] Members of the Scottish Greens also expressed concern over Forbes' views and suggested that their party might leave their co-operation agreement with the SNP if she became leader.

The following day, Forbes released a statement saying that she had listened carefully to the criticism and would pledge to uphold and enhance the rights of minorities.

[92] Regan said she wanted to slow down plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by phasing out extraction of oil and natural gas from the North Sea.

He said that he wanted to increase support for Scottish independence before focusing on the means of delivering a referendum and committing to challenging the UK government's decision to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

[106] Yousaf said that the NHS would have faced the same issues no matter who was health secretary, and highlighted that his negotiations with trade unions had avoided industrial action in Scotland.

[107] He said that he would use his approach to pay negotiation in the NHS with every part of the public sector if he became first minister, to try to "make sure we don't have strikes in any industry".

[103][110] Yousaf committed to continue Sturgeon's progressive approach, and said that if Forbes won and became first minister he might turn down an offer to serve in her government if she changed the party's social policy positions towards a more conservative stance.

[111] In 2014, Yousaf was absent for the final vote on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014, citing a ministerial engagement regarding a Scottish prisoner facing capital punishment for blasphemy in Pakistan.

[113] The former MSP Alex Neil, who introduced the act, said that Yousaf had deliberately scheduled the meeting to avoid the vote, with permission from Salmond, "because he was put under pressure by the leaders of the mosque in Glasgow".

[123] At the first TV debate on 7 March, Forbes said she would seek the "legal powers to hold a referendum" on independence within three months of the new UK general election.

Prominent pollster John Curtice said the results "strongly suggest" the aggressive attacks by Forbes and Yousaf on each other in the debates had "so far has proven unattractive to voters".

[193][194] Severin Carrell and Lucy Forbes, writing in The Guardian, reported that the contest had exposed deep divisions within the party.