Free Republic

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two-term U.S. Rep. James Lankford emerged from a crowded primary field Tuesday to win the Republican nomination for Oklahoma's open U.S. Senate seat, avoiding a runoff despite a well-funded challenge from a tea party-backed candidate. By getting more than 50 percent of the vote, the 46-year-old Lankford advances to face the Democratic nominee and one independent in November. The seat became open when GOP U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn announced in January he planned to step down with two years remaining on his term following a recurrence of prostate cancer.

Four years ago, James Lankford was a Baptist minister making a long-shot first foray into politics and T.W. Shannon was a little-known state legislator. Now, they are rising Republican stars who will square off in a competitive primary for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma Tuesday. The campaign is the latest pressure test for a coterie of national tea party groups with an eye on shaking up the midterm landscape. The national tea party machinery is squarely behind Shannon. The contest, which could be headed to a runoff, also carries broader implications for a Republican Party looking to shed its image as...

Fifth District Congressman James Lankford held a narrow lead over former Oklahoma Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon heading into the final week of their U.S. Senate primary campaign, according to the latest Oklahoma Poll. Lankford led Shannon 41 percent to 38 percent in a survey of 415 likely voters in Tuesday’s election. The survey was conducted June 14-18 by SoonerPoll.com and has a 4.81 percent margin of error. Former state Sen. Randy Brogdon was at 3 percent, with the other four candidates on Tuesday’s ballot totaling 2 percent. Sixteen percent were undecided. The poll results indicate a runoff between...

Cruz is a Republican from Texas. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has largely stayed out of the primary fray this year, stars in a new ad from Senate Conservatives Fund backing T.W. Shannon in the Oklahoma GOP primary for Senate.Shannon faces Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., and several lesser known candidates in Tuesday’s primary. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is resigning at the end of this Congress, leaving the seat open.“In Oklahoma, there are a number of good Senate candidates, but T.W. Shannon is a conservative fighter,” Cruz says in the ad.“He has the courage to look Washington insiders...

Given how savagely anti-gay the mainstream Oklahoma Republican party is, it’s no surprise that the state’s Tea Partiers are so rabidly hateful that they come across more as dark satire than as serious bigots. To wit: This week, an Oklahoma magazine discovered that last summer, Tea Party state House candidate Scott Esk endorsed stoning gay people to death: “I think we would be totally in the right to do it,” he said in a Facebook post. Esk went on to add nuance to his position: That [stoning gay people to death] goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and...

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — T. W. Shannon will be Oklahoma’s first black senator if he wins the Republican nomination and is elected this November, but the quiet campaign stirring here about Mr. Shannon’s racial loyalties is not aimed at the African-American branch of his family tree. Mr. Shannon, whose first name is Tahrohon, is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, the most influential tribe in a state where Native Americans are not merely the inheritors of a poignant history but also collectively constitute the state’s largest nongovernment employer outside of Walmart.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon is touting the endorsement of Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in Shannon's race for the Republican nomination for Oklahoma's open U.S. Senate seat.Shannon campaign consultant Trebor Worthen told The Associated Press Wednesday that Cruz has endorsed Shannon and is set to appear at a rally in Tulsa along with former Alaska Gov. and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.Palin and Lee endorsed Shannon previously.

Ted Cruz waded into a contested open-seat primary in Oklahoma on Wednesday, endorsing former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon over Rep. James Lankford. Though Cruz has shied away from endorsing Republican Senate incumbents locked in contested primaries, the Texas Republican had no qualms backing Shannon, who is increasingly drawing support from the Republican Party’s right flank in his bid to take the seat of retiring Sen. Tom Coburn.

SCF endorses T.W. Shannon for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma. Fellow Conservatives: We are very proud to announce our support today for T.W. Shannon (R-OK) who is running for the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma. T.W. Shannon (R-OK)As many of you know, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is retiring at the end of the year. Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) decided not to run for the seat, but T.W. Shannon has stepped forward for conservatives. T.W. Shannon is the former Speaker of the House in the Oklahoma legislature. He was elected by his Republican colleagues as the youngest and first African American House...

The retirement of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn poses a challenge for Republicans that extends beyond the party trying to preserve his Senate seat.

Just days after Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) announcement that he’ll retire at the end of the year, the race to replace him began to settle with Rep. James Lankford (R) expected to announce his decision to run at a Monday-afternoon press conference, sources tell The Hill. Rep. Tom Cole (R) announced in a Sunday-night press release that he will not run, citing his seniority in the House. The state’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt (R), also announced in a Sunday Facebook post he won’t run. The decisions of Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R) and Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon still remain unclear....

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma Democratic Party chairman Wallace Collins says former U.S. Rep. Dan Boren is considering running for Tom Coburn's U.S. Senate seat. Boren served four terms as a U.S. Congressman then went on to work for the Chickasaw Nation as president of their corporate development department. Boren was the state's only Democratic member of Congress, serving the 2nd District.

To answer the question that keeps invading my vacation in the form of tweets, Facebook messages, texts, and emails — Congressman Jim Bridenstine. Jim is the guy I would support in an instant to replace Senator Coburn in Okalahoma. I don’t know whether he is running or not, but conservatives would be insane to not draft him into the race. In fact, I think conservatives should draft him, rally around him, and let the establishment be the side divided behind multiple candidates. When Coburn ran for the Senate in 2004, the establishment rallied behind his opponent in the primary. Coburn...

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn will finish out the current congressional session and then resign from his seat nearly two years before his term is scheduled to end, he said in a statement released late Thursday. […] Coburn, a physician from Muskogee, recently was diagnosed with a recurrence of prostate cancer, but said his decision was not about his health. …