[2][4] In the 1999 election, Pokere-Phillips stood for the Alliance in the seat of Port Waikato and as number 40 on the party list.
Te Huia, who had 396 criminal convictions at the age of 54, alleged years of abuse while he'd been a child under state care.
Pokere-Phillips' motivations at the time including giving a voice to a boy who has suffered under state care, and a "sense of justice" to the man he had grown into.
[15] She stood unsuccessfully in a by-election for the Hamilton City Council east ward in 2021, gaining 247 of the 12,178 votes cast.
[17][18] Later that year she placed fourth in the 2022 Hamilton mayoral election and also failed to become one of the first two councillors for the city's new Maaori Ward.
Pokere-Phillips ran in Hauraki-Waikato for a second time, against incumbent Nanaia Mahuta (Labour) and the successful Te Pāti Māori candidate, 21-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
She has also appeared on Counterspin Media, described by Radio New Zealand as a "far-right conspiracy theorist website that promotes anti-vax messages".
[29] On Counterspin she said believes that COVID-19 vaccines are "a bio-weapon that kills people" and that hospitals are "death camps".
The Waikato Times noted that she didn't share this motivation in other public forums like election debates.