Posted on 01/21/2014 6:12:46 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican
Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon is forming an exploratory committee to look more closely at a potential run in the special election for retiring Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) seat, multiple sources tell The Hill.
Shannon’s office declined to comment, but sources say he's now expected to run.
One source tells The Hill Shannon has received dozens of calls from supporters “very enthusiastically encouraging him to run” since Coburn’s announcement last week that he’ll retire at the end of the year.
Shannon would run as a conservative alternative to Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who entered the race Monday to considerable pushback from conservative groups.
"We have reviewed his record and it's clear that conservatives cannot count on him to fight for their principles,” Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins said in a statement after Lankford announced.
That group endorsed Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) for reelection and urged him to run for Senate last year. Bridenstine would likely get the support of most of those deep-pocketed national conservative groups if he ran.
But with Shannon in the race, Bridenstine wouldn’t be guaranteed to pick up the anti-Lankford mantle, and the two run the risk of splitting the conservative vote and giving Lankford an opening to take the primary.
More likely, observers say, is for the primary to head to a runoff, where Lankford and an alternative candidate would face off.
Shannon’s supporters believe he could have a shot at making it to the runoff because he’s got the strong political ties within Oklahoma that Bridenstine lacks, and the state House speaker has also been a stronger fundraiser than the congressman. Shannon has raised his profile within the state over the past year, as he was named one of the Republican National Committee’s “Rising Stars.”
Sources close to Bridenstine say he hasn’t yet made his decision, and it ultimately wouldn’t be based on what any other candidate does.
Bttt
He has a good chance! & you’re right, he would drive the left bonkers. Even more reason to support him.
I know Lankford is in..don’t think Bridenstine has announced yet.
He won’t drive them bonkers. They’ll just have their Judas Goats and Uncle Toms call him “a sellout”, and try to marginalize him.
“He won’t drive them bonkers. They’ll just have their Judas Goats and Uncle Toms call him “a sellout”, and try to marginalize him.”
I have some concern that “Yellow Dog” Democrats in OK would go for Boren in such a match up.
Yellow dog democrats are becoming more rare in Oklahoma.
We can thank captain zero for that.
He didn’t carry a single county in either election.
I think the old yellow dogs are finally voting GOP.
I hope Shannon does announce and run. That would almost certainly insure a runoff where Jim Bridenstine would advance and defeat the GOPe’s candidate Lankford.
The GOPe HATES the runoff system because, as in Texas last cycle with Ted Cruz defeating the GOPe’s candidate Dewhurst, it defeats their tactic of splitting conservative votes and allowing the GOPe’s candidate to win with a mere plurality.
So come on Shannon and any other candidate—the more the merrier for vote splitting purposes. We want the REAL AuH2ORepublican (i.e., Jim Bridenstein) in the race to win with the Senate Conservatives Fund’s backing. And won’t Rove and his fellow travelers hate that!
I’m a conservative, voting Republican in Oklahoma, and I have been really impressed by Lankford, whom I first heard speak at a pro-life rally in OKC a couple of years ago. He is serious, intelligent, informed, and well-spoken. He could be a great senator for our state. (I have no connection to him, if you are wondering.)If he doesn’t become senator, he could also make a great governor.
First of all, I don’t think that Dan Boren would give up his high-paying job with the Chickasaw Nation to run for the Senate, particularly in a race that well could pit him against Chickasaw Nation member T.W. Shannon. If Boren wanted to be in politics, he would have stayed in his House seat, where he did not appear to be vulnerable despite it trending increasingly Republican.
Second, the OK-04 (SW OK) certainly had a higher percentage of Yellow Dog Democrats 20 years ago than does OK as a whole nowadays, yet it replaced Democrat Dave McCurdy with black Republican J.C. Watts, and then replaced Watts with Native American Republican Tom Cole.
Third, Republicans don’t need to many Yellow Dog Democrat votes to get elected statewide nowadays.
Fourth, T.W. Shannon is an extraordinary politician, and the 2014 midterms are going to be brutal for Democrats, so I don’t think that any Democrat (not even Boren) would be able to run a competitive race against Shannon.
We have “eliminated”, politically speaking, most ‘yellowdogs’ in Oklahoma. Ha! They r an endangered species.
You are assuming a lot of things there. And you know what happens when you assume ....
But I don’t think that Bridenstine will run, in which case we won’t get the chance to see whether you’re correct about who would win the election.
As for primary run-offs, I agree with you that they’re terrific (and not just because they allowed Cruz to beat Dewhurst and DeMint to defeat Beasley), and wish that every state had them. Having someone win the primary with 30% makes absolutely no sense.
I really want Bridenstine to run, but I wonder if he wants to risk losing his House seat. Lankford is UNACCEPTABLE in any case. The upside is, once he is defeated, we can replace his House seat.
Shannon? I’ve heard good things. If Bridenstine declines, he’s a million times better than Lankford.
(BTW, if we had 50 black senators, we’d still be racist)
“(BTW, if we had 50 black senators, we’d still be racist)”
Knew he had to be conservative; his wife is hot.
Illini state ... primary is March 18 ...
CD-16 gonna be close?
CD-13? CD-11, CD-8?
Funny how that works.
Lankford is a clone of Tom Cole. He would not have announced his quest but for Cole’s encouragement. He is lock-step with Cole. Cole is an insider friend of Boehner. ‘Nuff said.
They are both GOPe.
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