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The GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma will head to a runoff after the top two candidates advanced in a contest to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK).
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and candidate T.W. Shannon, who was speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, will now face each other in a runoff election slated for Aug. 23.
OKLAHOMA REPUBLICAN SENATE HOPEFUL TW SHANNON PLAYS UP OPPOSITION TO ABORTION
Now in his fifth house term, 44-year-old Mullin said he believes the only way to change Washington, D.C., is to “start changing the resume you send up here” in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
“I ran for Congress the first time because I got fed up — I got fed up with how much it was costing our company to comply with simple state and federal regulations. You have a bunch of bureaucrats, who have never created a job in their life, trying to tell us how to run our jobs,” Mullin told a local ABC News affiliate on Tuesday.
Mullin, who received roughly 43.6% of the vote with more than 95% of precincts reporting, was able to raise over $3 million ahead of the primary on Tuesday, according to a pre-primary report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Shannon gained the second-highest vote total with about 17.5% of the vote. He had raised $811,204 for his campaign, according to FEC filings. The candidate largely took aim at the “woke agenda” of the Left while upholding conservative values, including his dedication to the capitalist framework of the economy and upholding “the right and the sanctity of life” for the unborn.
In a speech to his supporters, Shannon said he looked forward to defeating Mullin in August, adding that he was both an “Oklahoma First” and “America First” candidate. He also blasted President Joe Biden’s administration for focusing so heavily on Ukraine’s borders rather than the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a local Fox affiliate.
Inhofe, 87, confirmed his plans to retire in late February, saying that he and his wife “have decided that we need to have time together.” He was first elected to the Senate in 1994 and won reelection in 2020 following his victory against Democratic candidate Abby Broyles. His term ends in January.
The GOP race was highly competitive and included additional candidates such as Nathan Dahm, a state senator who described himself as the most conservative candidate in the race and received about 12% of the vote, and Luke Holland, former chief of staff to Inhofe and the retiring senator’s preferred choice to succeed him. Holland got roughly 11% of the vote.
A former adviser to President Donald Trump, Alex Gray, placed his bid in the race but subsequently dropped out and later endorsed Holland.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Former state Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who was head of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, also ran but was not able to muster much of a supportive base following a series of ethics scandals during the former administration. He got just 5% of the vote.
The winner of the August runoff will likely be favored in the deeply red state in November against former Rep. Kendra Horn, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
