Independent Kate Hook, who kicked off her campaign on Wednesday, faces a tough ask against incumbent Andrew Gee, who managed to increase his margin at the last election in 2019.

"We have no illusions about the fact that it's going to be a huge challenge," Ms Hook said.

"The really encouraging thing is, the more I talk to people, the more people are telling me, yes, that is what we need.

"We need politics to return to the people. We need people to feel that they are included."

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Ms Hook, who was born in Wagga and has lived in the Orange district for about 16 years, said her interest in challenging for Calare came through working with various community groups and through the Australia-wide Voices online movement.

She explained the philosophy behind the Voices movement was to bring politics back to the people rather than have it controlled by the mainstream political parties.

"I guess what was challenging about that was that the community would have a really well-thought-out, evidenced based case, but the barrier always seemed to be political, rather than logical," Ms Hook said.

"That piqued my interest.

"Basically, Voices for Calare as a project is a listening exercise and now as an independent candidate I'm continuing that listening exercise and what people are telling me is they feel that there is a disconnect between political representatives and the people and it comes because party politics gets in the way."

Ms Hook said she felt it was time constituents had a better sense of what their representative was doing on their behalf.

"The issue is if someone lives in a small village in Calare and they go to their National Party MP, if that issue isn't toeing the party line, then it will just get lost in the party room and they won't get any traction on that issue," she said.

"If they have an independent candidate, there is no party room. I can be a true representative of the people in Canberra."

In kicking off her campaign in Orange on Wednesday, Ms Hook referenced Peter Andren, who was the last independent to win the seat of Calare.