LAWTON – Two of the three candidates for the District 1 seat on the Comanche County Board of Commissioners made it past Tuesday’s GOP primary election.
Longtime Commissioner Gail Turner led the three-candidate field with 983 votes, or 44.14% of the total, according to unofficial election results. His opponent John O’Brien came in second with 710 votes, or 31.88% percent of the total.
Charlie Hale finished third with 534 votes, or 23.98% of the total.
Hale said Thursday that he was not surprised by the results, as he was busy with work and did not have time to campaign before the primary.
“I kind of had a feeling that was going to happen,” he said.
Turner and O’Brien needed to capture a simple majority of the vote – 50% plus one – to avoid a runoff. Since neither candidate reached that threshold, they will both appear on the Aug. 23 runoff election ballot.
The race did not attract any Democratic candidates, which means whoever wins the runoff election will claim the 1st District seat in January.
Turner said Thursday that his strategy heading into the runoff election will focus on upgrading county roads and meeting with voters.
“Our ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money coming in will be a big shot in the arm to be able to do a lot more stuff for the taxpayer this summer, and we’ll be out there working as hard as we can to improve things as fast as we can,” he said in a phone interview. “We’ll get out in front of people and try to answer all the questions people might have.”
O’Brien said he plans to take a different approach in the days leading up to the runoff vote.
“Our team has been growing throughout this race, and now there are more reaching out to offer support,” he said in an email. “That is going to make a huge difference. And now that I’ve gotten a better grasp on what I’m doing, I am going to work 10 times harder to win in August.”