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Evaluating key Oklahoma primary election results

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Oklahoma voters went to the polls on June 28th to cast ballots in local, state and federal elections. While many Oklahoma elective offices have already been filled, voters also delivered some interesting results.

TRANSCRIPT

Capitol Insider sponsored by the Oklahoma State Medical Association, committed to connecting Oklahoma physicians with matters that are important to Oklahoma patients. More on the vision and mission of OSMA at okmed.org.

Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider - taking you inside politics, policy and government in Oklahoma. I'm Dick Pryor with a Quorum Call publisher Shawn Ashley. Shawn, Oklahoma voters went to the polls on Tuesday and nominated the two major party candidates for governor, Kevin Stitt from the Republican Party and Joy Hofmeister from the Democratic Party. Hofmeister easily defeated former state Senator Connie Johnson, and Stitt beat three opponents to win his primary. But the governor's margin of victory was less than might have been expected for an incumbent.

Shawn Ashley: Stitt received just over 69% of the votes in Tuesday's primary election. That is substantially less than two of the last three governors in the primary elections for their reelection bids. Governor Mary Fallin, for example, received 75.5% of the vote in her 2014 primary reelection bid and Governor Brad Henry, a Democrat, received 86% of the vote in the 2006 Democratic primary. Governor Frank Keating, when he sought reelection in 1998, did not face a primary opponent. Now, another way to look at this is that more than 30% of Oklahoma Republicans who voted in Tuesday's primary did not support their incumbent governor.

Dick Pryor: Which may mean nothing, but we’ll see. Two candidates with strong Stitt ties had tough nights. Attorney General John O'Connor narrowly lost to Gentner Drummond and Secretary of Education Ryan Walters, running for state superintendent, got 41% and finds himself in a runoff with April Grace for the Republican nomination. That suggests the length of the governor's coattails will bear watching in the primary runoff.

Shawn Ashley: It certainly does. One would think that even with Stitt getting only 69% of the Republican vote in the primary election, his appointees would have produced similar results, but they did not. Obviously, Walters will have to outperform his primary showing in the runoff if he wants to make it to November's general election ballot.

Dick Pryor: Three other statewide races are heading for runoffs, including Labor Commissioner, where incumbent Leslie Osborne is facing a challenge. And that's a bit of a surprise.

Shawn Ashley: That's right. Osborne, the incumbent and a former House member, faces outgoing Representative Sean Roberts in the primary runoff. Outgoing representative Todd Russ will face former senator Clark Jolley, who also served on the Oklahoma Tax Commission, in the runoff for the Republican nomination for state treasurer, where current state treasurer Randy McDaniel is not seeking reelection. In the race for the open Corporation Commission seat, outgoing senator Kim David faces former representative Todd Thomsen in the runoff. Now, listeners may have noticed a common theme there in all those candidates. All six are current or former state legislators.

Dick Pryor: Most of the legislative races have already been decided, but there were some upsets. What stands out?

Shawn Ashley: Well, any time you have incumbents lose, that certainly stands out and we saw that Tuesday in the Republican primaries. Senator Jake Merrick from Yukon, Representative Logan Phillips from Mounds, and Representative Wendi Stearman of Collinsville all lost in the Republican primary Tuesday. Meanwhile, incumbent Senator Darcy Jech, a Republican from Kingfisher, faces a runoff in August with Brady Butler.

Dick Pryor: On the federal level, predictably, with 14 candidates on the ballot there's a runoff in the race for a Republican nomination in Congressional District 2 between two candidates who did not even break 15% of the vote. We don't see that very often.

Shawn Ashley: No, we don't. And in this case, what we will have is Representative Avery Frix, who chose not to seek reelection to the state legislature and captured just 14.74% of the vote on Tuesday, facing Josh Brecheen, a former state senator who was the second top vote getter with 13.75%. But as you noted, there were 14 candidates on the ballot and those totals for Brecheen and Frix were enough to make the primary runoff. And it also leaves a lot of votes for the candidates to compete for to win. And like the runoff for Corporation Commission, that sets up a state House versus state Senate race. We have that again in Congressional District 2.

Dick Pryor: And in the unexpired term U.S. Senate race, former House Speaker T.W. Shannon made it into a runoff with U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin with only 17% of the vote.

Shawn Ashley: Yes, Mullin goes into the runoff with a sizable advantage, but kind of like Stitt, there are a lot of votes he did not get and will be up for grabs in the primary runoff with Shannon.

Dick Pryor: And the primary runoff election is set for August 23rd. Thanks, Shawn.

Shawn Ashley You're very welcome.

Dick Pryor: If you have questions, e-mail them to news@kgou.org or contact us on Twitter @kgounews and @QuorumCallShawn. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor.

Dick Pryor has more than 30 years of experience in public service media, having previously served as deputy director, managing editor, news manager, news anchor and host for OETA, Oklahoma’s statewide public TV network. He was named general manager of KGOU Radio in November 2016.
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