Formation

The party was registered on 4 July 2017.^[2] John Darley was the sole Nick Xenophon Team member in the South Australian Parliament until he left the party to become an independent on 17 August 2017.^[3]

On 6 October 2017, Xenophon announced that he would be leaving the Federal Senate to contest the state seat of Hartley at the 2018 state election.^[4] Xenophon resigned from the Senate on 31 October 2017.

At its 2018 annual general meeting, the South Australian party officially changed its name from Nick Xenophon's SA-Best to SA-Best.

In late 2017, NSW-BEST, VIC-BEST, WA-BEST, QLD-BEST and NT-BEST were registered as business names, leading to speculation that the party would expand interstate.^[5] However, as of 2022, none of these have formed political parties.

2018 South Australian election

In the March 2018 South Australian election, SA-Best contested thirty-six seats in the South Australian House of Assembly and put forward four candidates for the upper house. The party charged candidates $1,000 to be considered for pre-selection, and a further $20,000 for running in the lower house, or a further $40,000 in the upper house, as well as fund their own local campaign.^[6]

The thirty-six House of Assembly seats contested were: Badcoe, Chaffey, Cheltenham, Colton, Croydon, Davenport, Dunstan, Elder, Elizabeth, Enfield, Finniss, Gibson, Giles, Hammond, Hartley, Heysen, Hurtle Vale, Kavel, King, Lee, Mackillop, Mawson, Morialta, Morphett, Mount Gambier, Narungga, Newland, Playford, Port Adelaide, Ramsay, Reynell, Schubert, Taylor, Unley, Waite, and Wright.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

The party failed to secure any lower house seats,^[13] although there was a close contest in the historically safe Liberal seat of Heysen.^[14] Xenophon unsuccessfully contested Hartley and although he came second on the primary vote ahead of Labor's Grace Portolesi by 202 votes, the preference distribution of the eliminated fourth-placed Greens candidate turned Xenophon's 99-vote lead over Portolesi into a 357-vote deficit. Third-placed Xenophon was therefore eliminated, with Hartley reverting to the traditional Liberal vs Labor contest.^[15][16] The party came second on primary votes in ten seats; the strongest results were in Chaffey, Finniss, and Hartley, where the party received over 25%.^[16][17][18]

In the upper house, SA-Best received 19.3% of the voted, securing two seats, with the election of Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo.^[19][20]

2022 South Australian election

At the 2022 South Australian election, SA-Best had one lower house candidate (in the seat of Giles), and two upper house candidates. The party received approximately 1.1% of the upper house vote, and no candidates were elected.

Upper house members are elected for eight-year terms; as such, Bonaros and Pangallo’s terms will expire in 2026.

In December 2023, Frank Pangallo left the SA-Best party.^[21]

Legislative Council

• Connie Bonaros 2018–present
• Frank Pangallo 2018–2023

Mayors

• Kris Hanna Mayor for Marion 2018–present