Liberal Senator Jane Hume is a leading candidate to replace Kelly O’Dwyer in the blue ribbon seat of Higgins and is being urged to switch from the Senate.

Born and bred in the seat, senior Liberals have urged her to make the leap, just months after her political career came under threat during the leadership ballot.

Her political mentors in the Liberal Party include the powerful Senate leader Mathias Cormann and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

“I am seriously considering it,” Senator Hume told The New Daily.

“To Kelly (O’Dwyer’s) credit she’s always treated it like a marginal seat. I am going to make a decision based on what’s best for the Liberal Party and what’s best for winning the next election.”

It will be a stunning coup if Senator Hume is able to secure the seat. The well-regarded Liberal faced losing her Senate spot just months ago as part of the latest round of ugly Liberal infighting in the state.

Elected to the Senate in 2016, the 47-year old mother of two is a former banker with the National Australia Bank, Deutsche Bank, and a senior superannuation policy adviser with Australian Super.

She grew up in the seat of Higgins, went to school there and her children have followed in her footsteps.

And she wouldn’t be the first Liberal to use Higgins as as a vehicle for transitioning from the Senate to the House. Former Senator John Gorton made the same move when taking over as PM from Harold Holt in 1968, who also represented the seat.

Liberal insiders believe she may be able to appeal to both conservative and moderate Liberals, who have flirted with The Greens in the seat. A champion of greater female representation in the party she has declared the party has a problem but it was tough to convince men to act.

“If we told you there wasn’t a bit of a collective eye-roll when we start talking about this, we’d be lying,” she said.

“One of the things … we have to do is convince our members and our colleagues that there is a business case for increasing the number of women in Parliament.”

Another potential candidate is Ms O’Dwyer’s former nemesis and Sky News broadcaster Peta Credlin.

Ms O’Dwyer’s career languished under Tony Abbott but was fast-tracked under Malcolm Turnbull.

Asked if Peta Credlin could be one of those talented women who might come forward, the Prime Minister declined to speculate.

“We’re not going to get into speculation about the candidates here, but there have been some fine women who have run most recently in elections here around this part of Melbourne and I am looking forward to an outstanding candidate coming forward as I’m sure will,” he said.

Ms O’Dwyer insisted her reasons for quitting were intensely personal, confirming that she and her husband had struggled to conceive her first two children and were hopeful of a third.

She famously clashed with the government’s chief whip Scott Bucholz, after he urged her to express more breastmilk so she didn’t miss any parliamentary votes in 2015.

“I no longer want to consistently miss out on seeing my children when they wake up in the morning or go to bed at night and I want to know that when I am around, my time with them is not constantly disrupted” she said.

“And it’s clear to me that they also want to spend more time with me as well.”