VIDEO: Senate Candidates Debate In Lawton
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
GOP US Senate candidates tout conservative values
By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press
LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — Five of the seven candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the race for Oklahoma’s open U.S. Senate seat touted their conservative credentials and took turns criticizing President Barack Obama at a forum Friday in Lawton.
Two-term U.S. Rep. James Lankford of Edmond and former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon of Lawton are the front-runners to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, a hero to conservatives who is foregoing the final two years of his term amid a recurrence of cancer.
Also participating in Friday’s debate were former state Sen. Randy Brogdon of Owasso, college professor Kevin Crow of Chickasha, and Broken Arrow businessman Eric McCray.
Three Democrats and an independent also are in the race, but a Democrat hasn’t been elected to an open U.S. Senate seat in Oklahoma since David Boren in 1978, and Republicans are heavily favored to retain this one. State Republicans are confident the real battle for the seat will be held on June 24, the date of Oklahoma’s primary election. If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote, a primary runoff will be held on Aug. 26.
Lankford, who has quickly risen to a top leadership post in the Republican-controlled U.S. House, talked about his experience as a member of the House Budget Committee and some of the investigations being conducted by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, upon which he also serves.