UPDATE 11AM: Nationals candidate Dave Layzell said he is 'humbled and elated' by what looks to be a Nationals victory in the Upper Hunter by-election.

While he stopped short of declaring victory, he did say the "people of the Upper Hunter have given me their trust" in what he described as a mostly positive campaign between candidates.

His first priority will be to list all the issues the Nationals "looked at during the byelection and start actioning them".

Here is what Mr Layzell and deputy premier John Barilaro had to say on Sunday.

EARLIER: MORE than half the votes have been counted in Upper Hunter with David Layzell on track to retain the seat for the Nationals.

Mr Layzell has won 31.2 per cent of the primary vote with 56 per cent of the ballots counted.

On a two-party preferred basis the Nationals candidate has extended his lead to 56.3 per cent over Labor's Jeff Drayton on 43.7 per cent.

Mr Drayton has 20.8 per cent of the primary vote, well below the 28.6 per cent won by the party's 2019 candidate Melanie Dagg.

Primary votes on Sunday morning:

NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier John Barilaro stopped short of calling the contest on Saturday night when 44 per cent of the vote had been counted, but said there was "no doubt we've got a substantial lead".

"Something would have to go drastically wrong from here, so we are confident we've got the victory," he said.

One Nation's NSW leader Mark Latham recognised a winner early on Sunday morning.

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"Congratulations to Dave Layzell and John Barilaro on their Upper Hunter victory," he wrote on twitter.

Mr Layzell, an engineer from Clarence Town, said ahead of election day that the political opportunity had come much quicker than he anticipated but he was ready to represent his community.

"It was always something I thought that may happen in 10, maybe 15 years' time," he said.

"It's certainly not something that I ever thought would happen now.

"It came very quickly and very fast."

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