BRENDON Grylls is realising his strategy of expanding the Nationals' footprint beyond agriculture into mining in Western Australia.
Almost 63 per cent of counting for the Pilbara seat has been completed, showing Mr Grylls comfortably ahead with 39.43 per cent of valid votes and Labor trailing behind at 30.05 per cent.
Leaving his safe Wheatbelt seat was considered a highly risky move for the man dubbed the "kingmaker" of the 2008 state election.
But his bravery has paid off.
Not only that, the Nationals are likely to retain the balance of power in the upper house.
Mr Grylls himself was not immediately available for comment after his champagne-popping victory on Saturday night, but Nationals WA president Colin Holt was full of praise for the 39-year-old.
"Obviously Brendon as a party leader has taken a large risk but it shows how good a politician and a member he is, and the strategy that he's rolled out, with a fairly comfortable win in a totally new area for the Nationals," Mr Holt told AAP.
"The important part here is for us to continue to deliver for our agricultural constituents. We as a party needed to expand and get into new territory and increase our footprint so we could remain relevant for all regions in WA.
"Brendon Grylls has led that from the front.
"It's been a remarkable strategy and it's paid off."
John Phillimore, executive director of the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, agreed it was a remarkable effort and very successful strategy by Mr Grylls.
"Clearly, it was a very brave move and I can't think of another leader who has ever given up a seat with about a 20 per cent margin to go and fight a marginal seat where you start seven per cent behind," Professor Phillimore said.
It hadn't been a complete triumph for the Nationals, however, with the seat of Warren-Blackwood looking likely to be seized from agriculture and food minister Terry Redman by the Liberals.
A redistribution added the Greens stronghold of Margaret River, where Mr Redman's stance on genetically modified food trials probably upset voters, Prof Phillimore said.
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