Its sole current federal legislator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, also a senator, sits with the National Party.

It has typically prioritised economic development of the territory and originally drew most of its support from Outback towns and the pastoral industry.

It later developed a voter base among the urban middle-class populations of Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs (the latter two of which are strongholds for the party).

A party system did not develop in the Northern Territory until the 1960s, due to its small population and lack of regular elections.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) contested elections as early as 1905, but rarely faced an organised opposition; anti-Labor candidates usually stood as independents.

The regionalist North Australia Party (NAP), established by Lionel Rose for the 1965 Legislative Council election, has been cited as a predecessor of the CLP.

[17] The Country Party primarily drew its support from Alice Springs, small towns, and the pastoral industry, including "a fair proportion of the non-urban Aboriginal vote".

[18] In 1973, the Country Party began actively working to include Liberal supporters within its organisation, spurred by the Whitlam government's announcement of a fully elective Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

Following informal negotiations led by Goff Letts, a joint committee was established to determine changes to the Country Party's constitution and policy.

[22] Goff Letts became the inaugural majority leader, a title changed to chief minister after the granting of self-government in 1978.

According to ABC election analyst Antony Green, the CLP weathered these severe ructions because Territory Labor was "unelectable" at the time.

The 2008 election saw the CLP recover from the severe loss it suffered three years earlier, increasing its representation from four to 11 members.

The CLP under the leadership of Terry Mills returned to power in the 2012 election with 16 of 25 seats,[29] defeating the incumbent Labor government led by Paul Henderson.

Large swings were achieved in remote Territory electorates (where the indigenous population comprised around two-thirds of voters) and a total of five Aboriginal CLP candidates won election to the Assembly.

[31] Among the indigenous candidates elected were high-profile Aboriginal activist Bess Price and former ALP member Alison Anderson.

In a nationally reported speech in November 2012, Anderson condemned welfare dependency and a culture of entitlement in her first ministerial statement on the status of Aboriginal communities in the Territory and said the CLP would focus on improving education and on helping create real jobs for indigenous people.

[33] Giles was sworn in as Chief Minister on 14 March, becoming the first indigenous head of government of an Australian state or territory.

[34][35] Willem Westra van Holthe challenged Giles at the 2015 CLP leadership ballot on 2 February and was elected leader by the party room in a late night vote conducted by phone.

[37] After a meeting of the parliamentary wing of the CLP, Giles announced that he would remain as party leader and Chief Minister, and that Westra van Holthe would be his deputy.

[39][40] Giles raised the possibility of an early election on 20 July stating that he would "love" to call a snap poll, but that it was "pretty much impossible to do".

[41][42] Federally, a MediaReach seat-level opinion poll of 513 voters in the seat of Solomon conducted 22−23 June ahead of the 2016 federal election held on 2 July surprisingly found Labor candidate Luke Gosling heavily leading two-term CLP incumbent Natasha Griggs 61–39 on the two-party vote from a large 12.4 percent swing.

[43] The CLP lost Solomon to Labor at the election, with Gosling defeating Griggs 56–44 on the two-party vote from a 7.4 percent swing.

[49][50] Traditionally, the CLP's voting base has been mostly concentrated in Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine and parts of Darwin, as well as in rural towns where the majority of people are white.

[51][52] A 2023 poll conducted by the Redbridge Group, which found that the CLP would win the 2024 general election in a landslide, looked at demographics by voting intention in the Northern Territory.