“Rogers County was, the whole time I was growing up here for the last many years, it was Democratic and then it was slowly drifting towards being more Republican,” Young said.
Since when?
My sisters live in Owasso and Claremore.
I don’t remember any county ever being democrat in 40 years.
The last Democrat to win the STATE was next-door Texas' favorite son, LBJ in 1964. Previously it was firmly GOP in Presidential Elections from TX-born, Kansas raised Ike to Nixon but was 'D' for FDR-Truman.
However, from my family history, I am told that when my father (Durant-born) brought his war-bride new YANKEE wife (Delaware), to Lawton, he advised her that registering as anything OTHER than 'D' would mean being unable to vote outside the General Elections! Oklahoma got its first GOP Governor, as a state, in the 1962 election and in the 14 elections since, the winners have been 7 and 7.
FYI: his mother, my g.mother, was chairwoman of "The United Daughters of the Confederacy" and I'm told that her opinion about Republicans of any stripe could blister paint at 30 paces. Oh to have been a fly on the wall when she got the letter from her son, at war in Europe, that he had become engaged to a YANKEE. Can you say 'the vapors!' (smile!)