National and Labour have formally launched their 2026 election campaigns with events in Auckland held on the same day. Both parties used the occasion to lay out their teams and their pitch to the supporters and media on hand. The matching launches set the frame for the next six weeks, the stretch that remains before New Zealanders vote. Polling has the two sides close enough that commentators are already describing the contest as a knife-edge election. Auckland matters to both campaigns given the number of seats the city contributes to the overall map. Attention in the coming days will shift to policy announcements, candidate rounds and the leaders' debates that fill the calendar. With margins that thin, swings in a handful of seats could end up deciding who forms the next government.