OKLAHOMA CITY – Four of the 13 candidates seeking the GOP nomination to replace outgoing U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe spoke at a candidate forum last Wednesday during the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting.
Former EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt, Luke Holland, Inhofe’s chief of staff; state Sen. Nathan Dahm and former House Speaker T.W. Shannon pitched their ideas and worked to paint themselves as the most God-fearing conservative on stage.
Seven other candidates – Jessica Jean Garrison, Cushing physician Randy Grellner, Adam Holley, Laura Moreno, Michael Coibion, Paul Royse and John F. Tompkins – didn’t make the invite list. The race’s frontrunner, incumbent Congressman Markwayne Mullin, skipped the debate to stay in Washington, D.C. Candidate Alex Gray announced last week he had withdrawn from the race.
The debate was one of the last public appearances for the group. Early voting began last Thursday and the state’s official polling day – June 28 – is Tuesday. Should no single candidate get more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on Aug. 23.
Still, even with the short time frame, the group worked hard to convince the chamber’s faithful that the Biden administration was largely responsible for the nation’s problems and that if elected, they would take conservative values to the nation’s capital.
Dahm, whose career in the state Legislature has been focused primarily on social issue legislation, touted his conservative credentials at the event. “I’m the most conservative candidate here,” he said. “But I’m willing to work with anyone who wants to protect people’s rights. There are some of you today who probably want a liberal Republican. That’s not me. If you want a liberal Republican, you have a lot of other options to choose from.”
Holland, who was endorsed by Inhofe but still trails Mullin and Shannon in the race, said he could “strike the right balance with political opponents and still have the spine to block bad things the left wants to do and figure out how to move the ball forward for Oklahoma and advance real conservative victories that we need.”
Pruitt, whose tenure as EPA administrator was marked by controversy, said he would reinforce the country’s southern border, calling the current policy an incursion. “Two and a half million people coming across the border (are) violating the rule of law and sending a message to the rest of the country that it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We have to properly equip law enforcement to maintain the border.”
Shannon said he would leverage his experience as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives to solve problems. He said undocumented works were a national security issue and that the country needed to know who came here legally. He said new federal gun legislation would not prevent the type of gun violence the country has experienced.
Shannon said the country needed statesmen in the Senate.
“I’m a great fan of the two-party system,” he said. “I think it’s helped to make this country great. I fundamentally believe that just because you disagree with me, that does not make you evil. To be clear, it makes you wrong, but it does not make you evil.”
For his part, Holland said the country’s bad border policies were adding to the drug problem and increasing the number of overdose deaths.
While each of the candidates talked of how they could work with Democrats, Dahm led the group in criticizing Mullin. “It’s easy to say you’re for term limits and then, like Congressman Mullin, break your work when it becomes expedient for you. I wish he was here today to answer for that, but he chooses not to be here.”
Though he didn’t attend the event, Mullin’s campaign sent a message that was read by the event’s moderator, Alex Cameron.