Free Republic

<p>Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon officially announced his bid Wednesday for the U.S. Senate seat in his state that's opening up due to Sen. Tom Coburn's early retirement.</p> <p>Shannon, an African-American who's starting to build a national profile and is considered a rising star in the GOP, made his announcement with statements on Twitter and his website before holding multiple campaign kickoff events.</p>

Note: I wrote this back in September, I just wanted people to see this. If you haven’t heard that name yet, you should look it up. Who is he? He’s the Speaker of the House here in my home state of Oklahoma. He’s African-American and also a member of the Chickasaw Nation. First elected back in 2006 as the first Republican from his district in Lawton, OK, he has risen steadily through the ranks in his six years as a representative. First time I took serious notice of him was around late 2011 when the State House GOP were choosing...

Oklahoma is back on track to reduce its personal income tax and make sure it remains economically competitive. Last year, Oklahoma legislators voted to reduce the state’s personal income tax from 5.25 percent to 5 percent starting January 1, 2015. There was also a provision to lower the income tax further to 4.85 percent in 2016 if certain revenue targets are met. Governor Fallin signed the measure into law and Oklahoma became one of eighteen states to cut taxes during the 2013 legislative session. Unfortunately, the tax cut package was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The package...

Liberal federal judges who have ruled against state laws barring same-sex “marriages,” essentially arguing that there is no biological evidence to support the idea of marriage between a man and a woman, “need some basic plumbing lessons,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), himself a former state district judge for Texas’s 7th judicial district and chief justice of Texas’s 12th Court of Appeals. […] In the Oklahoma case on Jan. 14, U.S. District Judge Terence C. Kern ruled that “Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.” (Kern was nominated to his...

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a now-famous rant, put out the "Not Welcome" mat in front of Empire State pro-lifers.  If you're conservative, he said, you're not welcome in his state.  NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio sided with him "100%". Oklahoma State Representative Rebecca Hamilton, who has served in the Oklahoma House for 18 years, has published a response to the governor's inflammatory remarks on her blog, Public Catholic, which can be found on the Catholic Portal at Patheos.   Rep. Hamilton first gratefully acknowledges the statement from Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, who publicly...

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

Tulsa man accused of taking toddler on drunken horse ride A Tulsa man who was once charged on an out-of-state child endangerment complaint was arrested by police Monday after he allegedly was seen riding a horse with a 3-year-old child while intoxicated. Dennis Carl Byers, 38, was booked into the Tulsa Jail on child neglect and public intoxication complaints, jail records show. Byers was spotted by Tulsa police about 8 p.m. Monday in the 2000 block of East 56th North on a horse with a small child, Byers' arrest report said. Officers who stopped Byers observed that he had blood...

OKLAHOMA CITY - State lawmakers are considering throwing out marriage in Oklahoma. The idea stems from a bill filed by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Edmond). Turner says it's an attempt to keep same-sex marriage illegal in Oklahoma while satisfying the U.S. Constitution. Critics are calling it a political stunt while supporters say it's what Oklahomans want. "[My constituents are] willing to have that discussion about whether marriage needs to be regulated by the state at all," Turner said. Other conservative lawmakers feel the same way, according to Turner. "Would it be realistic for the State of Oklahoma to say, ‘We're not...

(CNN) -- The University of Oklahoma in Norman reported a shooting on campus Wednesday. "Avoid Gould Hall. Seek immediate shelter in place," the school said on Twitter and on its website. Gould Hall houses the university's college of architecture.

Congress is more unpopular than ever, but some Members are better than its reputation. One of them is Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who announced on Friday that he'll leave the Senate at the end of this year. Mr. Coburn's second term doesn't officially end until 2016, but he is battling a recurrence of prostate cancer and said he felt he could "best serve my own children and grandchildren by shifting my focus elsewhere" than Congress. Mr. Coburn's tenure on Capitol Hill has been notable for his convictions on behalf of limited government combined with a determination to do more...

The field to replace retiring Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is only beginning to take shape, but some conservative groups are already backing Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who has yet to announce his intentions, and have come out swinging against announced candidate Rep. James Lankford. Coburn announced last week that he would cut his Senate term short. He is currently battling a recurrence of cancer. Lankford announced he would run for the seat on Monday; Bridenstine has not yet announced a decision. Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed Bridenstine for re-election to the House last year, calling him “the real deal,” and saying that...

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....

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...

The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 72-26 Thursday to pass a $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill to keep government operations funded until Sept. 30. All 26 “nay” votes came from Republicans. Two Republicans, Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), did not vote. Here are the 17 Republicans who voted to pass the bill:

Fellow Conservatives: We have some very sad news to report. Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK)U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has announced that he will resign from the Senate this year. Dr. Coburn is battling a serious recurrence of cancer. This is a big loss for Oklahoma and the country. Dr. Coburn has been a tireless fighter against wasteful Washington spending. No senator has done more to research and expose our government's gross abuse of American taxpayers. He is a true citizen legislator and we need more like him in Washington. Please take a moment to read Jim DeMint's statement about the...

Pearl Pearson is a 64 year-old diabetic deaf driver who resides in the Oklahoma City area. On the evening of January 3rd, Pearl crossed paths with the wrong cops. The following is the story according to Pearl Pearson and family of what happened that night: What’s the story? At this time, only limited details can be provided since this case is under investigation. 1. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled Pearl over late in the evening on January 3, 2014. Pearl pulled over as he should. 2. Pearl’s driver’s license indicates he is Deaf. He also has a placard in his...

He’s a Clinton appointee but he’s been sitting on this case for, if you can believe it, nine years. Maybe that’s because he was waiting for the Supremes to tackle the issue or maybe he just didn’t want to touch it in a state as red as Oklahoma. Either way, the plaintiffs were unhappy. They’re happier today. “The Court holds that Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” U.S. District Court Judge Terence Kern wrote.The ruling will not go into effect immediately, Kern decided, issuing a...

Oklahoma's gay marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Terrence Kern handed down the ruling in a lawsuit filed by two same-sex couples. Kern immediately stayed his ruling pending appeals, meaning gay marriages won't happen in Oklahoma right away. The gay couples had sued for the right to marry and to have a marriage from another jurisdiction recognized in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma ruling comes about a month after a federal judge in Utah overturned that state's ban on same-sex marriage. Hundreds of couples got married there before the U.S. Supreme Court intervened,...

For years, American students have consistently ranked poorly compared to most developed nations. And according to a recently released study, the U.S. education system remains mediocre, receiving a C− grade, for the third year in a row. Click here to see the states with the best school systemsClick here to see the states with the worst school systemsEducation news and research publication Education Week released its 18th annual survey of the status of education in all 50 states. The K-12 Achievement Index is one indicator in Education Week’s “Quality Counts” report that measures key education outcomes and provides ranks and...

Let me begin this post with a personal anecdote. True story: I was once arrested for participating in an abortion protest. It was a standard banana-republic arrest and charges were dropped because there was no basis for arresting us. But I got to spend a night in jail—a rather light version where all us pro-lifers got to sack out together. The room was quite familiar to me—the paint, the décor, the cinderblock wall underneath. It was the same as every American schoolroom I had ever been inside. Moving on to what might seem like a different subject: What a great...