In 2023 Mr French finished 1443 votes behind sitting MP, Labour’s Ingrid Leary, in second place.
Ms Leary is Labour’s nominee again, and the Greens are also fielding their 2023 candidate Scott Willis.
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson also stood in Taieri in 2023 and intends to return for another crack at the seat, pending his nomination being confirmed by his party.
Mr French, who formerly worked in hospitality, is now a branch manager of a will and trust provider.
He is also prominent in club rugby — he is the current captain of the Zingari-Richmond Rugby Football Club — and serves on several community trusts.
"I am humbled to be selected as National’s candidate for Taieri, to help re-elect a National government focused on fixing the basics and building the future," he said in a statement.
"I’ll be working hard between now and November 7, meeting as many people as I can to ... earn the right to represent Taieri as its next National MP."
Taieri, the former Dunedin South seat, has traditionally been a Labour stronghold.
However, Mr French ran a strong campaign in 2023 and in an election which featured a strong swing to the right increased the National candidate vote by just over 7%.
He did even better on party votes, driving National up to 14,206, just 301 behind Labour.
National has won the party vote in the former Dunedin South seat before, in 2011 and 2014.
Since those elections the boundaries have changed, bringing in more rural areas into what was once a predominantly urban seat.
Since his loss in 2023 Mr French has remained active in southern National politics and was a regular at party events.
National has yet to start its selection process for a candidate for the Dunedin seat, in which it has fielded former MP Michael Woodhouse in every election since 2008.
Mr Woodhouse retired in acrimonious circumstances in 2023 after being placed at a likely unelectable rank on its party list.
