Win It In One? What’s The Likelihood The Senate Race Goes To A Runoff?
In Republican race for U.S. Senate: Can Shannon or Lankford win in the first round?
by Chris Casteel
WASHINGTON — Tom Coburn did it easily in 2004. But it’s a wide-open question whether one of the Republicans trying to succeed him in the U.S. Senate can pull it off 10 years later.
That is: Could U.S. Rep. James Lankford or state Rep. T.W. Shannon grab the GOP nomination for the open Senate seat in the first round, thus sparing Oklahomans two more months of campaign commercials aimed at the tiny fraction of voters who would turn out in late August to decide the race?
Campaign veterans said there is a path for either of the two men to win without a runoff, though. With a month to go before the June 24 primary, the dynamics of the race could change a lot.
Polls in the race — mostly paid for by the candidates or outside groups backing a candidate — have jumped all over the place. But there has been one consistent factor: Former state Sen. Randy Brogdon and four political novices on the ballot are drawing less than 10 percent combined.