James Lankford (R OK-5) to run for Tom Coburn's Senate Seat

[LeBron]

What about polling in this Senate campaign?

The only thing that matters is the primary because whether it's Shannon or Lankford who wins in June, there's no chance Constance Johnson wins and would be lucky if she even got 30%. She's too liberal (even for me) to do well at all in OK. From what I found on her, she wants to raise the minimum wage, is very pro-choice, and truly believes she can legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in a state where the legislature and Governor Fallin would never do such thing. She's quoted as saying it's a "winnable race" to even though Dems haven't won a Senate race in OK since 1990 and haven't held this seat since 1968, so her optimo-meter has gone off the deep end.

And considering the large proliferation of the state party that aren't liberals, she may actually do worse than a generic Oklahoma Democrat would do, but she'll nonetheless beat out Jim Rogers for the nomination and do better than his 2010 performance. On the plus side, her run did give Brad Henry the opportunity to decline a run in the shadows without having to feel guilty or anything. It still would have been nice to see Boren run for the seat, though.

[LeBron]

Geez, what Republicans will do for the most conservative candidates possible. Let alone one who, if elected, would give Republicans two African American Senators and then set up the Tea Party spokesmen for their opportunity to start lying talking again about how friendly the party is nowadays on race, civil rights, voting rights, poverty programs and wages etc. It's weird to how Cruz and Lee have endorsed Shannon so far but not the 3rd Stooge, Curly (Rand Paul). I have little doubt he'll eventually endorse Shannon to and he might be waiting for the primary to end for now just so he doesn't upset his fellow redhead congressional buddy.

I still have a little faith in Lankford though that he could eek out a win, but man, he should have been prepared for this. It is after all Oklahoma which obviously has a strong bench of young Republicans who were vying for the seat even before Coburn decided to retire.

[LeBron]

Not that it matters really, but AP projects that Johnson and Rogers will be going to a runoff. Thanks to Hayes surprisingly well performance despite being a little known perennial who has no picture base and hasn't campaigned or stated his views on issues, Johnson was kept at 44% to Rogers 35%. It will be another boring, no show race if Rogers is the nominee again, but when stuck with a sociocon in the House GOP leadership and a huge progressive liberal, that would be interesting to see where the centrists would go in such a polarizing election.

Regarding the other Senate race, I'm a little shocked Inhofe outperformed his 2008 performance. He got nearly 90% of the vote tonight as opposed to 2008 when he got 84% against a smaller slew of primary candidates. The only explanation I can think of for this is the tragic loss of Inhofe's son still in the minds of many Oklahoma voters, but I'm not sure.

[LeBron]

Not sure when the run-off is, but I feel like I should re-register Democrat to vote for Johnson. She certainly has my vote against Lankford.

August 26th. Just make sure that if you do to vote in the Dem runoff, to vote for Deskin for Superintendent and McAffrey for U.S. Rep as well on the Democratic ballot.   I'm stunned to see the incumbent Republican got absolutely demolished in that race though; Barresi apparently spent millions to try and save her seat only to come in dead last.

With the Democratic primary, I think Johnson is favored. Not only did she get a larger chunk of the vote, but she still has time to campaign and GOTV against someone who isn't campaigning at all plus is it possible Hayes only got 21% of the vote because his name was first one the ballot and Oklahomans had no idea who either of the 3 candidates was? With Hayes out, Johnson will be at the top of the runoff ballot which should favor her, to.