Former state Sen. Brian Bingman captured the Republican nomination for Corporation Commission, receiving 53.42% of the votes cast in Oklahoma’s only statewide race in the June 18 primary.
Bingman, who resigned last fall as Secretary of State to run for the Corporation Commission, received 126,733 of the 237,234 ballots counted in the three-man race. It was the second time Bingman ran for the Corporation Commission, having lost in 2018 to incumbent Commissioner Bob Anthony.
Bingman, 70, served one term in the state House of Representatives before being elected to the state Senate, where eventually he became the president pro tempore of that chamber.
Union representative Justin Hornback, 40, a former pipeline welder/ inspector, received the second highest number of votes cast in the race: 68,003. The third candidate, former longtime energy journalist Russell Ray, 55, received 42,498 votes.
Bingman carried every county in the state but one: Jefferson County. Among Bingman’s biggest wins were in Oklahoma, Tulsa and Creek counties.
Bingman now must face Democrat Harold Spradling and Libertarian Chad Williams in the Nov. 5 general election. Spradling and Williams were the only candidates representing their parties.
The winner will succeed Anthony, who is term limited for the first time since he was elected in 1988. He has served six consecutive six-year terms on the commission.
His election in 1988 made him the first Republican elected to the Corporation Commission in 60 years, and in 1994 he became the first GOP incumbent in Oklahoma history to win reelection to a state office. He was reelected again in 2000, receiving more votes at that time than any candidate for state office in Oklahoma history.
If Bingman wins the general election, the Corporation Commission will be composed entirely of former state legislators, Ray noted. Chairman Todd Hiett previously was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Commissioner Kim David is a former Senator.
Bingman’s campaign contributions totaled nearly $399,000 (he spent nearly $388,000), of which nearly $43,000 came from executives and a PAC at Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. Sixteen executives, including company president Sean Trauschke, supported Bingman.
Hornback raised more than $26,000 in campaign funding as of early June, and spent $9,567 on his campaign.
Ray’s fundraising, according to reports on file with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, hardly registered a blip on the radar screen. He started his campaign with $2,702.50 in contributions and no other reports had been filed.