Felix Ellis

Felix Ashton Ellis (born 22 January 1990) is an Australian politician, who was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly on 17 August 2020 in a recount to fill a vacancy for the division of Braddon caused by the resignation of Joan Rylah.[1]

Ellis was born in Brisbane[2] and raised in Western Australia. He moved to Tasmania in 2014 after his mother had moved there earlier,[3] and worked as a plumber on Tasmania's West Coast. He was ran as a Liberal candidate for Braddon at the 2018 Tasmanian state election.[4] During the election campaign, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre called for Ellis to be disendorsed by the Liberal Party after he made a Facebook post comparing a brick to an Aboriginal artefact.[5] Ellis holds dual Australian and Lithuanian citizenship, and was therefore ineligible to run as a candidate for the 2018 Braddon by-election.[6]

Following the state election, Ellis worked as a media advisor for Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck. When Rylah resigned from the House of Assembly on 27 July 2020, Ellis was elected in the ensuing countback as the only eligible Liberal candidate on the 2018 ticket.[3]