National election campaigns – by definition a team effort – are somewhat unfairly often credited to the performance of a single person.

But thanks to a sharp, focused campaign that produced a large majority for Boris Johnson after a period of unprecedented political instability there was just one name being sung out at Conservative headquarters on Thursday: Isaac Levido.

Inside Conservative HQ, officials are currently singing “Oh Isaac Levido!” to the tune of Seven Nation Army (the Aussie who ran the Tory campaign) — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) December 12, 2019

A protege of veteran Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, Levido is not a household name in his home country, despite playing a senior role in the upset re-election of Scott Morrison’s government in May.

He is just 36, but former Liberal Victorian state director Simon Frost says Levido has “experience beyond his age”.

No stranger to the UK, Levido worked on the 2015 and 2017 general election campaigns before setting up Crosby-Textor’s Washington DC office and returning to Australia to serve as Liberal party deputy director from January 2018 to mid-2019.

After a change of prime minister in August 2018 plunged the Liberal-National Coalition government into minority, they faced a seemingly impossible task of picking up seats from Labor to stay in power despite three years of polling deficits.

Levido had responsibilities spanning the party’s research and polling, through to day-to-day operations setting up headquarters in Brisbane, and organising the ground game with state directors.

Frost says Levido was “cool and calm under pressure” as he assembled the nuts and bolts of a Liberal party campaign run with a ruthless focus on the leftwing economic policies and personal unpopularity of Labor leader, Bill Shorten.

In Australia, Levido worked with Michael Brooks, a pollster from Crosby’s British company CTF Partners, and digital content experts Sean Topham and Ben Guerin from New Zealand – a team that was later transplanted to run Johnson’s campaign.

While the British Labour party took a leaf from Australian Labor’s formidable 2016 campaign – both claimed the conservatives would privatise public health services – Levido and his team capitalised on Brexit fatigue with the winning pitch that a majority Johnson government would “get Brexit done”.

Andrew Bragg, a Liberal senator and former acting party director, is a life-long friend of Levido from their time at college at the Australian National University.

Bragg describes Levido as “a country guy from Port Macquarie” and “not a wanker” – echoing the personal reflections of other colleagues who say he is quiet, unassuming hard worker who doesn’t self-promote, is not too serious and can have a laugh at himself.

New South Wales Liberal president, Philip Ruddock, has a glimmer of pride when he describes Levido as “our young man we sent to London” but stresses at the Australian election in May he was “part of a very professional team” led by the “very able” federal Liberal party director, Andrew Hirst.

Hirst describes Levido as “a consummate political professional”.

“He did a great job for the Liberal party, and he has clearly done an outstanding job for Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party.”

Even Labor MP and shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon paid tribute to Levido’s achievement:

Issac Levido, the Aussie being given a great deal of credit for Boris Johnson’s win has strong Cessnock connections. His Dad Justin grew up in Cessnock before moving to Port Macquarie. His grandfather & uncles including Dom Levido played for the Cessnock Goannas — Joel Fitzgibbon (@fitzhunter) December 14, 2019

Ruddock thinks the Liberal party had the edge in Australia because of a team with “proven skills” harvesting the right data “to make judgments about [which voters] it’s possible to move”.

“You need people who have a capacity to look at all of the data, to bring it together, draw conclusions about your own tactics and the way in which you’re going to deal with the issues.”

Bragg says Levido has “been able to get to the top of his game really quickly”.

“If I were federal director, he’d be the one I’d want running the campaign,” Bragg says, echoing a sentiment that Australian conservatives hope they can call on Levido’s skills again – if he is not lost to the UK for good.

“He understands politics, polling and … modern campaign infrastructure. He’s an earthy machine man.”