Election 2018: After a shattering defeat, SA Best leader Nick Xenophon rules out return to federal politics

SA Best supremo Nick Xenophon has ruled out returning to federal politics after his plan to become a kingmaker on North Tce ended in utter disappointment.

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SA Best supremo Nick Xenophon has ruled out returning to federal politics after his state politics encore failed to take off.

Speaking to a small group of party faithful on Saturday night, Mr Xenophon acknowledged his result in the seat of Hartley was “disappointing”.

He had attracted 25.2 per cent of the primary vote so far, well below Liberal Vincent Tarzia (40 per cent) and neck and neck with Labor’s Grace Portolesi (24.4 per cent).

“Hartley’s looking grim, there’s no way of sugar-coating that. But we’re still not conceding anything because we’re still looking at that very closely,” he said.

Deflated SA Best Leader Nick Xenophon mingles with supporters at the party’s election night function in Adelaide. Picture: Kelly Barnes/AAP

Mr Xenophon was dubbed SA’s kingmaker but his SA Best party looks unlikely to win any Lower House seats, despite the leader holding out hope in Heysen and Finniss.

Mr Xenophon said election night was “tough but it’s not over yet”, and hailed the likely election of two Upper House candidates, Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo.

“It’s a start. It means that we’ll have a presence in the SA Parliament,” he said.

“We’ve gone from zero to at least two, possibly three or four or five in the best case scenario and that’s a start.

I’m a pesky and persistent bastard, I’m not going to be going anywhere.”

Asked repeatedly if he would try to return to federal politics, Mr Xenophon said he was not considering it “right now”, before doubling down. “I’m ruling it out,” he said.

A deflated Mr Xenophon did his best to remain upbeat with his supporters at SA Best’s election party, focusing on a series of “strong second” results.

He told a downcast party faithful it was “going to be tough but we can rebuild from this”.

Frank Pangallo and Connie Bonaros look likely to win Upper House seats for SA Best — but the party looks unlikely to take any Lower House seats. Picture: Tom Huntley

“The fact that we have come a good second in a number of seats means there’s always another election another time round so we’re not giving up,” he said.

“It’s been a remarkable campaign considering what we were up against and we’ll learn from those lessons. We’ve been bruised but we will be at it again.”

Mr Xenophon said he had cost his chances in Hartley by “spreading myself too thin” across the state as he waged a campaign to hold the balance of power.

“I’ve acknowledged that but I was too worried about other candidates,” he said.

Mr Xenophon said it was too early to unpick what had went wrong.

“People who know me know I’m my own harshest critic. I’ll give a pretty blunt assessment but we were just outgunned by negative campaigns against us.”