Steve Race was elected Labour MP for Exeter on 4 July 2024 with 18,225 votes and a majority of 11,937 (29.7 percent), succeeding Ben Bradshaw, who had held the seat for 27 years. Born in Hull in 1983 into a working class family, he has spoken of a deprived childhood, including sharing one textbook between three pupils at school, and of a younger sister born severely disabled, which shaped his interest in disability and SEND services. He studied at the University of Manchester. That background is a different profile from the "professional politics and consultancy track" alone.

His career has run between Westminster and corporate communications. He was a Senior Parliamentary Researcher for Ben Bradshaw from 2007 to 2011, chaired the Young Fabians, then built a 13 year career in public affairs and PR at FleishmanHillard, BCW, Teneo and Lexington Communications, advising charities and transport companies. He also spent three years at LloydsPharmacy campaigning for a fairer funding settlement for community pharmacy, the root of his APPG on Pharmacy chairmanship. He attracted criticism for Lexington's association with the private water industry.

His path to Exeter went through Hackney, where he was a councillor from 2018, having earlier contested East Devon in 2015, and he became a governor at an Exeter primary school from 2023 to build a local connection before his selection in 2022. He sits on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and chairs the APPGs on Pharmacy and for the Great South West, the LloydsPharmacy background and the Pharmacy APPG forming a coherent health policy lane. His campaign priorities were NHS dentistry, the SEND crisis and homelessness.

Race's strengths include a Hull working class background, a severely disabled sister giving personal understanding of disability services, a University of Manchester education, the Young Fabians chair, 13 years of communications experience, three years at LloydsPharmacy directly relevant to his Pharmacy APPG chair, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, the Great South West APPG for regional advocacy, and a 29.7 percent majority. His weaknesses include no connection to Exeter before political selection (born in Hull, a Hackney councillor, selected in 2022), the Lexington water industry association, the optics of 13 years of corporate PR in a university city, no ministerial office, no legislative achievement, and the permanent comparison with Bradshaw's 27 years in the seat. At 42, with the pharmacy expertise, the Science Committee and the Great South West APPG, he has three policy lanes. Whether Exeter voters see NHS dentistry improvement, SEND progress and action on homelessness will determine whether the Bradshaw succession develops its own identity.