Posted on 06/15/2014 7:27:50 AM PDT by cotton1706
Most years, two term Congressman Jim Lankford (R-OK) would be considered a shoe-in to replace retiring Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) as his party's nominee in the upcoming Oklahoma U.S. Senate Republican primary this June 24. With a reliably conservative voting record (Heritage Action Scorecard rates him at 82 percent) and the support of the Washington establishment, Lankford entered the race when Coburn suddenly announced his retirement in January with a 37 point lead in the polls.
But Lankford's top challenger, former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon, has made a surprisingly strong challenge, climbing from a huge deficit to run neck-and-neck with Lankford in polls from this spring.
Shannon served as the youngest Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives ever from 2012 to 2014. While there, he established a strong conservative record as a fiscal hawk, supporting efforts to eliminate the state's debt by selling off unused state assets. He has continued in his Senate campaign to support classic conservative positions.
Shannon's limited government message has garnered the support of a host of national Tea Party groups--including the Senate Conservatives Fund--as well as some high profile Tea Party favorite politicians. Sarah Palin, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz have all endorsed him.
As long-shot challenger David Brat's unprecedented upset over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Tuesday illustrated, 2014 is turning out to be a volatile political year, and Shannon may be a beneficiary of that change in the national mood.
On Wednesday, Sarah Palin said, "Grassroots commonsense conservatives can use this momentum [from the Dave Brat victory] to push good candidates like Chris McDaniel, T.W. Shannon, and Rob Maness to victory for America. These candidates are also being massively outspent by establishment candidates and they need our help and energy."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Palin is for Shannon. Rev Huckabee is for Lankford. Enough said.
If I’m not mistaken TW is African American. Oklahoma elected more African-Americans then some liberal states.
What’s wrong with journalists these days?
It’s “shoo-in”, not “shoe-in”.
They can’t be bothered with such nonsense as learning to spell - they have a great big liberal agenda to learn and adhere to.
82% is reliable? Really?
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