{"id":80708,"date":"2025-09-23T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/80708\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:47:07","slug":"marian-harkin-backs-nomination-of-maria-steen-to-contest-presidential-election-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/80708\/","title":{"rendered":"Marian Harkin backs nomination of Maria Steen to contest presidential election \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister of State Marian Harkin <\/a>has backed conservative campaigner Maria Steen <\/a>to enter the presidential election.<\/a><\/p>\n

She told Shannonside Northern Sound she will be supporting Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys <\/a>in the campaign. <\/p>\n

But she confirmed that she is willing to facilitate Ms Steen entering\u00a0the\u00a0race.<\/p>\n

In a statement later, Ms Harkin said: \u201cI have signed the presidential election nomination papers for Maria Steen. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a member of the Oireachtas I have two votes in the presidential election and will use both -one to nominate a candidate whose name can appear on the ballot paper, in this case Maria Steen, and the other to vote for my preferred candidate, Heather Humphreys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Harkin said that while she does not agree with Ms Steen\u2019s views on a number of issues, which she did not list, she will \u201cdefend her right not only to have those views but also to articulate them in a presidential election\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Harkin\u2019s intervention will be a boost to the conservative commentator as she continues to seek the 20 Oireachtas nominations needed to contest the election.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election: Meet the three hopefuls who will be on the ballot paper next monthOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ms Steen met three of Independent Ireland\u2019s four TDs on Monday night to request their support as she scrambles to reach the threshold before the close of nominations on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It is understood she said that with the support of the party, she would have 17 or 18 TDs and Senators willing to sign her nomination paper \u2013 just two short of the required number. <\/p>\n

Independent Ireland TDs will hold a meeting at 11am to decide on whether it will endorse\u00a0her\u00a0candidacy.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catherine Connolly denies being equivocal on Hamas, condemns genocide in GazaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sligo-Leitrim TD Ms Harkin is the second independent Minister of State to say they are prepared to help Ms Steen to enter the race.<\/p>\n

Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, a junior agriculture minister, is also supporting Fine Gael\u2019s candidate Ms Humphreys but has said he will sign nomination papers for Ms Steen to ensure there was a \u201cfair and full choice\u201d\u00a0for\u00a0voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister of State Marian Harkin has backed conservative campaigner Maria Steen to enter the presidential election. She told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,30253,54165,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-80708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-heather-humphreys","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-maria-steen","22":"tag-marian-harkin","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-presidential-election","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}