As the 2020 primary election quickly approaches, Republican candidate Robert Johns is running against Republican incumbent Daniel Pae for the House of Representatives District 62 seat.
Growing up on a dairy farm in Chesapeake, Va., Johns said he never thought he would become a politician. So, his decision to run for office was not taken lightly.
“If Lawton is going to be properly represented in Oklahoma City, I feel it needs to have someone who has experience,” Johns said. “And not just with life in general, but with running a business and having an established employment history in the area.”
Johns moved to Oklahoma in 2007 after serving three years in the Army and eight years in the Marine Corps.
He worked at Byford Lincoln Mercury, until they closed. He then worked for a defense contractor at Fort Sill. Now, he runs his own auto repair shop.
Johns said he doesn’t believe Pae has the proper experience to represent Lawton and that’s why he’s challenging the incumbent lawmaker. He thinks a representative also should be representing the district outside of the state.
”I think a representative, whether it’s a senator or a lower House representative, they need to do more than just sit at their desk up at the Capitol or go down to the House floor and cast a ballot,” Johns said. “They need to promote the city that they represent.”
In 2010, at the age of 41, Johns was the first of his siblings to pursue a higher education. He graduated in 2014 after studying political science at Cameron University.
Johns said his goal for Lawton is to see it be independent from Fort Sill.
“It would be great to see Lawton survive on its own without the help of Fort Sill and have the jobs, the workforce and the population to be completely independent,” Johns said. “Where soldiers want to come to Fort Sill to be posted here, as well as stay here when they retire. That’s what I want for Lawton.”
However, the current pandemic is making it difficult for Johns to campaign. He said COVID-19 is making hard for him to connect with the citizens of Lawton.
“It’s kinda hard to talk to someone face-to-face when you’re both wearing a mask,” Johns said. “As a politician you want people to see who you are and not hide behind a mask.”
Instead, Johns is relying on mailings and phone calls to help his campaign efforts.
Though campaigning during the current pandemic has taken a different form than what is normal, Johns said an issue he hopes to address is city government exceeding its authority. He said the problem of the city council overstepping its bounds isn’t just with the current COVID-19 situation, but with issues of revenue also.
“In the past, if the city wanted to raise sales tax and they put it on the ballot and it gets shot down by voters, then they’ll [Council members] vote to raise utility rates,” Johns said.
According to Johns, Lawton needs a representative that won’t just repeat what the mayor says, but actively engages with the community. “If Lawton is going to grow, it needs a representative who knows how to do it,” Johns said.
Johns said he didn’t support the actions the Mayor and Lawton City Council took to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would not have shut the city down and wrecked the economy,” he said. “I wouldn’t have forced people to stay close to home. I wouldn’t have forced businesses to close their doors permanently.
“I wouldn’t have forced businesses to take measures to prevent the disease,” he declared, adding that he would have left it to businesses to take their own measures to fight the pandemic that has sickened and killed thousands of Oklahomans.
Johns also said he would have forced greater cuts to the state budget than the Legislature did during their latest session.
“I would have taken money out of other state (agency) budgets...and would have told other state agencies that they need to tighten their purse strings.
“I would have taken money from higher education since they get more than their share of the Oklahoma education budget, particularly schools that have athletic programs that, whether they want to admit it or not, do exist for a prophet.
“OU and OSU, those schools bring in enough money from their athletic programs to where they shouldn’t have to charge tuition,” he said.