It's VERY likely that former PM Tony Abbott has his seat of Warringah in the bag for the upcoming election.

He's held it for 22 years, the locals love him, and it's a staunchly blue-ribbon electorate.

But he'll have to swat away a growing number of statistically-doomed underdogs before he seals the deal.

There's the man of the moment / self-appointed voice for politically-disenchanted youth James Mathison. He dropped his campaign bombshell last weekend, and told Hack on Tuesday that, nope - it's not a stunt.

And then there's 24-year-old Greens candidate Clara Williams Roldan - a law student who's done this kind of thing before, after running against NSW Premier Mike Baird in 2015.

She knows she can't beat Tone and she's had to put uni on hold to focus on the fight.

She's also working full-time on the campaign, isn't getting paid, and is running it all from her childhood bedroom.

Why's she doing it?

Clara Williams Roldan told Hack that her decision to run comes down to representation in politics: both major parties are ignoring youth issues, Clara says.

"The reality is as a young person, looking at the two major parties, you get a sense firstly that you’re not being represented at all, but secondly that they have no plan for the future on their agenda," she says.

It's an idea that Clara shares with James Mathison, and the triple j audience: in our 2016 survey, only 1 in 5 of 18-29 year olds believed politicians were working in the best interests of young people.

Skip Instagram Post FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. A photo posted by triplejHack (@triplejhack) on May 9, 2016 at 12:42am PDT

"We constantly talk about youth disengagement in politics," Clara says, "I think a big reason for that is that no-one looks like a young person in politics! No-one looks like they actually represent what young people care about.

"So if you can have a face [in politics] where you're like, 'oh, that’s someone like me', of course you're more likely to be interested in what's going on."

Destined to lose

Clara's aware that she won't knock Tony Abbott out of the race on July 2. But after going up against the extremely popular Mike Baird in the state election last year, and securing 25 per cent of the primary vote, Clara says there's still value in fighting a losing battle.

"What I realised was that if you're passionate, and you really believe in what you're standing for, it is possible to actually make a difference, even if you are a Greens candidate running in a Liberal seat.

"We ended up out-polling Labor in the State election and getting about 25 or 26 per cent of the primary vote. 1 in 4 people in the Manly seat electorate were wanting to vote Greens. That just showed me that there's this real desire in the public for an alternative.

"There is definitely a mood on the ground here that people have had enough, and they feel quite disappointed about the lack of action [Tony Abbott] has taken [as the local member]."

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Great to see @richarddinatale down in Abbott/Bishop land helping bring a Green message to the Northern Beaches pic.twitter.com/eVftHO2CiL — Clara WilliamsRoldan (@WarringahClara) September 30, 2015

Taking on James Mathison

James Mathison stole national headlines for becoming the ultimate underdog to Tony Abbott. But Clara was already hard at it before Mathison sauntered into the campaign.

"I kind of think in some ways, good on him [James Mathison], if this is something that he really is passionate about, that's what democracy's here for," Clara says.

"The thing that struck me about his campaign though, is that it's angled in negativity. The first statement he made was that he was running on the hashtag #timetogotony.

"But there's also the question of, 'why did you run as an independent if your policies are quite similar to existing parties?'"

Clara says that it's worth noting where James has come from - and how he's not actually part of the core demographic he's pitching to.

He's talking about what young people need, but he's actually 14 years older than me, and of a completely different generation.

"I think he genuinely wants to engage with young people, but I can't imagine he'd understand in the same way that I do, what it is to look at the job market as it is today, because he's already had a career.

"Whereas, I’ve had friends who are like, 'are you sure you want to run for the Greens, because it could mean you’ll never get a real job'."

Thoughts on Abbott

As a young Greens candidate, Clara couldn't be more different to former PM Tony Abbott.

"In terms of his policies, I don't agree with the majority of them, that's why I'm running for the Greens not the Liberal party," Clara says.

"It's really hard to gauge how he's going to poll in this election I think, because the reality is, he's held this seat since I was 3 years old. That's through a lot of very different political climates."

But Clara says Warringah voters could be swayed.

"I think that'll be reflected on polling day."

Growing up in Indonesia

Clara spent 4 years in Indonesia growing up. She says the political atmosphere there, as the dictatorship of President Suharto was ending, made her appreciate Australia’s political system.

It showed me how incredibly important it is to have a government you can trust. And how privileged we are that we can go out and vote, and protest, and for those things to actually mean something.

"And that's why I'm such an advocate for if you believe in something - get out there and talk about it. Because it's amazing that we can."

Catch Clara Williams Roldan today on the Shakeup from 5:30pm on triple j.