McCall Selected As Speaker For 57th Oklahoma Legislature

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 14, 2018

House Republicans Elect Leadership for 57th Legislature
Charles McCall Named Speaker-elect

OKLAHOMA CITY – The House Republican Caucus today elected its leadership for the 57th Legislature and re-affirmed state Rep. Charles A. McCall as their choice for House Speaker-elect.

Speaker-elect McCall served as Speaker during the 56th Legislature and was elected by the caucus in May as House Speaker-designate for the 57th Legislature. Today’s election gave the 37 new Republican House members an opportunity to vote on leadership.

“I am grateful that my colleagues have confidence in me to lead this chamber,” said McCall, R-Atoka, who ran unopposed for the position. “We just emerged from a challenging time with great success, and I am hopeful that better economic times are ahead. The House is the chamber closest to the people, and our lawmakers have spent the last six months on the doorsteps and in town halls hearing directly from citizens. I am confident the House has a great understanding of what issues are important to the citizens of our great state. Voters just gave our caucus the largest Republican super majority in state history. I believe this is evidence that Oklahomans continue to trust our members to lead and solve the state’s problems. The upcoming session will present its own unique challenges, but I am confident that we can all work together to move our state forward.”

The Republican caucus also elected several top leadership positions today.

In addition to electing McCall, the caucus chose state Rep. Harold Wright to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore-elect for a second term.

“It’s a great honor to be chosen by your peers to do a job, and to earn their trust and be re-elected is deeply gratifying,” said Wright, R-Weatherford. “We have a very good leadership team in our caucus, and I am really looking forward to working with our members and Speaker McCall to meet our challenges and improve this state.”

State Rep. Tammy West was elected as Caucus Chairman. Rep. West served as Caucus Vice Chair during the second half of the 56th Legislature.

“It has been a privilege to serve the caucus as vice chair during the past session, and I am honored to be elected as caucus chair,” said West, R-Bethany. “I view this position is an opportunity to serve the members and help maintain a unified, effective team that accomplishes all of our goals on behalf of our citizens.”

Other elected leadership positions include:

Vice Caucus Chairman, state Rep. Ross Ford, R-Broken Arrow, who ran unopposed.
Caucus Secretary, state Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, who ran unopposed.
During the next several weeks Speaker-elect McCall will announce additional appointed leadership positions, as well as committee structure and committee appointments.

On Thursday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m., the newly elected members of the entire House will be sworn in at the Capitol. On January 8, the full House will convene for an Organizational Day to certify newly elected members and formally elect House leadership.

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