<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655224646324,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655224646324,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54841205", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1029527"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6313-d1f1-a1c3-7bd35d6f0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedAhead of the June 28 Oklahoma Republican Senate primary to replace departing GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe for the last four years of his term, Rep. Markwayne Mullin leads a crowded field of competitors, with 39% support.
While Mullin’s projected lead does not give him the edge needed to avoid an Aug. 23 primary runoff, he comes out ahead of former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon, who holds a 19%-5% advantage over former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for the second sot.
The recent survey for the forthcoming race was conducted by Amber Integrated between June 6–9 and included a pool of 400 likely GOP primary voters in Oklahoma, with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Inhofe, 87, announced earlier this year he would leave the Senate in January 2023, having been in the office for 28 years. Inhofe was a House member for eight years before his 1994 Senate victory.
During the same week the poll was conducted, Mullin was working in Washington, D.C., and said he could not attend an in-person, 60-minute June 9 debate between the other GOP candidates in the race, including Shannon, Pruitt, state Sen. Nathan Dahm, and Luke Holland, Inhofe’s chief of staff and preferred successor for the race. Former President Donald Trump’s White House staffer Alex Gray is also running for the seat but was not present for the debate.
REP. MARKWAYNE MULLIN WANTS TO ‘BRING OKLAHOMA VALUES TO DC’ IN GOP SENATE BID
In Oklahoma, if the top candidate does not receive a majority of all votes cast in the primary race, he or she heads to a runoff election with the candidate who received the second-highest portion of the votes. The expected Democratic nominee is former Rep. Kendra Horn, who won a surprise 2018 victory for an Oklahoma City-based House district but lost reelection in 2022.
Mullin, 44, is closely aligned with Trump’s policies and remains popular among the Trump base, which his allies hope will give him an edge in the race and a chance for a possible endorsement. His platform includes solving “our broken immigration system,” protecting veterans, and his anti-abortion sentiments that life “begins at the moment of conception.”
Meanwhile, 44-year-old candidate Shannon is mounting his second bid for Senate following his 2014 GOP primary defeat by now-Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). Shannon has touted himself as a “lifelong Christian” who believes in the “power of capitalism” and has decried “the woke Left trying to cancel Americans like me who are Christians, conservatives, and capitalists.”
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Mullin so far has raised $855,801 for his Senate campaign, while Shannon has raised $245,174, according to the Federal Election Commission.
