"Those poll results kept me going - I kept it confidential, even from our own team, but it gave me the confidence that we could do it."
His campaign experience over the years had taught him that it was a matter of having a plan, putting the resources together, getting professional people on board, and accessing the best information to know where you sit, he said.
"The unknown factor was the Havelock North water contamination and how many people would got to the ballot box and vote against me or not vote at all.
"I haven't done a detailed analysis yet but there was a significant majority in Havelock North in the early votes which gave me strength."
Mr Yule said he felt very humble that after 15 years as mayor people chose to stay with him, something he did not take for granted.
Looking ahead, he said the next couple of weeks would be taken up with the logistics of being a newly minted MP.
An induction was being held in Wellington today and the first caucus meeting would take place tomorrow, and later in the week all the new MPs were being taken to Auckland to see how the electorate offices operated.
He would also be on the hunt for a new electorate office in Hastings, he said.
"It's a whole new experience and learning about being part of a bigger, very efficient machine, involving a lot of very smart people."
This included making decisions through caucus debate, as opposed to being mayor and able to come up with his own policies.
One area that he championed while mayor was making Hawke's Bay a GE-free region, and he said if there was an opportunity to talk about that with the caucus he would.
"GE is really around the whole environmental protection and the value associated with the natural environment and we will be talking about all those things with the caucus.
"Water in general though is the single biggest policy issue that I will focus on in the next three years.
"The general public wants to improve water quality, both for drinking and in the rivers - if you put all that together it's a collective group of issues that are a high priority for this region."
He said regardless of whether people voted for him or not, he wanted to be a hard working local MP who championed the region to the government.
What that government would look like is still not certain this week as the country waits to see what deals New Zealand First leader Winston Peters would do with the respective parties.
Mr Yule said there was concern in the business community of Hawke's Bay about any deal being made with Labour and the Greens.
"The business community are having the time of their lives - work is coming out of their ears and they are worried about any change of economic direction.
"If you go to industrial areas such as Omahu and Karamu they are scared of what could happen - they have waited for a long time for things to be this good."
He acknowledged his opponent, Labour candidate Anna Lorck, who with her family had worked hard over the past six years, he said.
"She has thrown everything at it - they have run a good campaign."