Oklahoma, where the wins came sweeping down the plain Tuesday for a couple of state-level Democrats, is the new flashpoint for progressives hoping the resistance is taking electoral root. Karen Gaddis, a retired public school teacher, captured a House district representing parts of Tulsa. Michael Brooks-Jimenez, an immigration attorney, won a Senate seat in south Oklahoma City. Both offices were vacant and held previously by Republicans.
“Were I DNC chairman Tom Perez, I’d be on a plane to Oklahoma this morning and I’d arrange a parade for these two people,” wrote Esquire’s Charles Pierce.
“The wind, it appears, is coming right behind the rain.”
If only Perez hadn’t used up the world’s full complement of eight-letter words already. Describing this take as “Pollyannaish” will have to do. First, Gaddis and Brooks-Jimenez replaced lawmakers who resigned this year under investigation for alleged sex crimes. Dan Kirby, Gaddis’s predecessor, was accused of harassing two former aides: one with whom “he shared explicit text messages and solicited topless photos,” KWTV reported. “He said the two shared a relationship,” a claim the aide denied to an investigative committee that recommended his expulsion before he stepped down in early February.
The next month, Ralph Shortey, who represented Brooks-Jimenez’s district, was hit with multiple child prostitution charges after police caught him with a teenage boy from whom he solicited sex online.
Five years ago, Shortey received attention for pushing a bill that would have prohibited “the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses,” per the Oklahoma State Legislature’s website. The language was based on an unverified rumor that stem cells were being used in food testing. He also proposed legislation requiring presidential candidates to furnish their birth certificates for ballot eligibility. Vote Ralph Shortey: Long on Crazy.
He and Kirby left the world’s tiniest shoes to fill. But neither of the GOP candidates running to replace them generated much buzz. Gaddis’s opposition was so inspiring that the oldest Republican hopeful in a primary field of four expected to win the nomination because he once served on the Tulsa city council. “I’m pretty recognizable,” said 67-year-old Skip Steele, per the Tulsa World. “If not my face, they know my name.” He lost.
Brooks-Jimenez’s GOP competition, Joe Griffin, had raised $29,000 to Brooks’s $164,000, according to recent disclosures. He had lost a state House race to Democrat Forrest Bennett previously.
And yet! Gaddis and Brooks-Jimenez are rebukes to the president. “Turns out Donald Trump was right about one thing during his campaign — ‘We’re going to win so much.’ … except he probably didn’t mean Democrats winning and overperforming in a ton of special elections since his election,” Daily Kos wrote. It bears mention that neither Democrat positioned themselves as the great liberal hope, or an ideologue of any kind: They both prided themselves as education advocates, a familiar state issue, and keen on bringing job opportunities to their constituents. Brooks-Jimenez noted he is a “dedicated member” of the Catholic Church in his bio; one of a few letters to the editor endorsing Gaddis noted she was a practicing Methodist. All pretty conventional stuff for local and state legislative politics, where personal affinity is often a determining qualification for election.
And yet again! “This is the only way that the Democratic Party is going to come back with any lasting strength at all,” Pierce wrote. “Right here, at this level of government, is where it starts. This is where the farm system gets built.” Bring plenty of hammers: Republicans control nearly 70 percent of the nation’s state legislative chambers, and hold an advantage of more than 1,000 seats of the 7,000 available, Reid Wilson wrote in November.
There are reasons for Democrats to be at least piqued, if not hopeful, for reasons beyond bizarre, one-off special elections in ruby-red Oklahoma, where loud ‘n proud progressivism isn’t how the party paints territory blue. They consistently outperformed Hillary Clinton in a slate of recent House races from Montana to South Carolina. What a couple of years ago had promised to be an unusually favorable map for Senate Republicans is now in deep doubt. The congressional midterms look ominous for the GOP. And there’s no question the potential energy exists for winning Democratic turnout next year, whether in state houses or the big ones in Washington. Wish-casting in Oklahoma is not only delusional—it’s unnecessary. Such is the desperation of being the minority party in 2017.
