Republican primaries remain treacherous for incumbents

Tulsa World ^ | 6/19/24 | Randy Krehbiel

[cotton1706]

The fractiousness accompanying the Oklahoma Republican Party’s supermajority status in state government showed itself again in Tuesday’s primaries.

Four GOP incumbents, including the Senate president pro tem-elect, were defeated. Three, including the House Appropriations and Budget Committee chairman, were forced into the Aug. 27 runoffs.

That might not seem like a lot — 21 other incumbents won primaries Tuesday — but until recently it would have been an almost unprecedented event. From 2000-2014, a total of only three incumbents lost primaries or runoffs.

Then, in 2016 alone, three incumbents, all Republicans, were taken out.

And in 2018, an even dozen were beaten.

That was followed by six in 2020 and three in 2022. All but one were Republicans, and after a big shift to the middle in 2018, the trend has been toward candidates perceived as more conservative — although that might not be exactly accurate, either.

[cotton1706]

Why, Republican office-holders should just be allowed to remain in their positions until THEY decide to leave them, or are removed by some Democrat! That is the natural order of things.

NO!

Rotation in office is a key to liberty.

We have fixed terms of office for a reason. And politicians need to be continually reminded that they CAN be removed and replaced.

[oldplayer]

My three or four term State Rep is one of those Reps who went down. He got out worked., eff be en though he attended almost all community events. The winner was seen as more conservative.