The area that makes up Senate District 13 extends from Wetumka south to Allen. The district includes Ada, Stratford, Pauls Valley, Maysville and Lindsay and extends all the way to Sulfur and Roff.
Most voters would consider it rural.
But Senate District 13 is actually ground zero in one of the state’s highest-profile legislative battles this year — the incumbent senator battle. Greg McCortneythe pro tempore-elect, and his opponent, Jonathan Wingard, a 42-year-old member of the Oklahoma Army National Guard.
The battle for the SD 13 seat initially had three candidates, but Rob Crowley, owner of an Ada gas station, withdrew shortly after filing for office. The race moved into the high-profile category after Gov. Kevin Stitt targeted McCortney and other members of the Senate who opposed his proposals.
“Listen, I will never shy away from limited government, smaller government, the freedoms we believe in, free market principles, school choice, smaller taxes,” Stitt said in early March. “So absolutely, I mean, if there are candidates that I think will align with Oklahoma values, and there are candidates that don’t, then I will 100 percent run in the primaries and run and try to get the people of Let Oklahoma know what I think.”
The campaign has attracted at least one special interest group, the Advance Right PAC, which has distributed flyers and targeted text messages. Federal Election Commission documents show the group lists offices in both Washington, D.C. and Edmond. Campaign reports show that McCortney has raised more than $305,000 for the race. Wingard is a distant second, reporting just over $21,000 raised. The Oklahoman could not determine how much Advance Right spent in the race.
McCortney survived his first fight — a tough caucus fight to be named the next leader of the Senate, but he still had to run for reelection, and the outcome of that June 18 battle could change the face of the Oklahoma Senate change.
Wingard: Time for a change
Longtime Oklahoma National Guard employee Wingard, now retired, said federal rules initially prevented him from running for office. He said seeking public office was something he had wanted to do for a long time.
“I was working full-time for the Oklahoma National Guard, and as a government employee I was not eligible to run for office,” he said. “And this election cycle is the first election cycle I am eligible for.”
Wingard said he wanted to run because he was concerned about some of McCortney’s actions as a member of the Legislature. He cited McCortney’s work as Senate leader as an example.
“He will not allow bills to be heard on the floor,” Wingard said. He also criticized McCortney for voting against Phase Two funding for a new Department of Public Safety Tactical Training Center.
“For me, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “Not allowing bills to be heard. I don’t feel like this is true representation. We elect representatives across the state. “If you have one person unilaterally deciding what gets heard and what doesn’t, they’re less unilaterally deciding what bills get passed in the state of Oklahoma, and it’s not meant to be that way.”
Data shows that several thousand bills and resolutions have been introduced by lawmakers during the two-year cycle of the Oklahoma Legislature. Less than 10% are sent to the governor’s desk, and even fewer become law.
Wingard also criticized McCortney for not supporting Stitt’s call for a personal income tax cut. Starting in 2022, Stitt called the Legislature into session three times for tax cuts. And while state lawmakers finalized and approved a grocery sales tax cut this year, a second tax cut — a reduction in the personal income tax rate — has not been discussed in the Senate. Current leader of the Senate Greg treatsR-Oklahoma City, who has a limited window to run again, said state data showed the second cut would cost too much revenue.
While Wingard, a member of the Choctaw Nation, said he was pleased with the term limits and the fact that lawmakers had withheld billions in state revenue for savings, he said more could be done to work with outside groups, including tribal nations .
“We need the tribes,” he said. “The Chickasaw Nation is very big; they have done a lot for the area. I like a lot of things the tribes do, but all I want to say is I don’t want to bow to the tribes in losing statehood. We must work together and create a better state.”
Wingard said he disagreed with every action Governor Stitt took on tribal matters. He said the approach Stitt should take is to work with the tribes. “But the tribes also need to work with the state,” he said. “I would like to see us work together.”
Wingard said the Legislature should spend more money on infrastructure, but the money spent should be spent appropriately.
“My experience in the military, working full-time in the warehouse where property was constantly coming in, resulted in poor spending. You saw a waste of money,” he said.
Wingard said transportation and education agencies need to be careful about how they spend money. He said the education system needs to look at how the money is spent. “Not just fiscally responsible, but in a way that helps students,” he said. “We have too many students graduating from high school who can’t read, and I don’t like that. It’s not good for the state.”
He said education and a diversified economy are the keys to the state’s future.
McCortney: Building on the success of the present
Incumbent Sen. McCortney said he is not afraid of the issues related to community service. He runs towards them. And while McCortney has many critics, he said he is seeking office again because, “I started something and I want to finish it.”
Oklahoma, McCortney said, is in a good place. And he wants to make the state stronger.
“I understand how to represent my district and how to represent it well, and I don’t want to lose that knowledge,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean this campaign has been easy.
McCortney even said that this year’s campaign has been incredibly negative – and not true. “No one ever thinks about how the candidate’s mother will take that,” he said. “I feel like my mother has had to sacrifice a lot by going to her mailbox and seeing what people are saying about her son. It’s not easy for her.”
He said the next legislative session presents an opportunity for lawmakers and the state government. “Now that the House and Senate both have new leadership, I think we have an incredible opportunity, but we’re also going to have to do a lot of work to make sure we get the right people in the right places to be successful. a state.”
McCortney said he expected the Senate to have a “pretty good crop of new senators” and that the Legislature, along with new members of the House of Representatives and new leaders in both bodies, will face new challenges and will have a need for new relationships. As an example, he pointed to the governor’s difficult relationship with the state’s tribal leaders.
“Unfortunately, the relationship between the tribes and the executive branch is at an all-time low, at least for my lifetime,” he said. “It’s a real hardship for my district, and it makes my job in the Capitol more difficult than it should be.”
McCortney said repairing the relationship between the state, the governor and tribal nations was necessary. “I think it’s really important for Oklahoma that we all come back together and start pulling on the same rope again.”
He said he is hopeful that once the primaries are over, the governor will be willing to “start over and at least try to mend the fences.”
“I hope we don’t have to wait another two years before we get a new governor,” he said. “I think there have been a lot of opportunities to get back together, and we missed them all.”
McCortney, however, remains an optimist.
While he’s quick to praise outgoing Senate leader Treat, he’s also just as quick to talk about the differences between the two men. While Treat is a skilled politician, McCortney said he is at his best when he delves deeply into a policy issue.
“I’m not the politician he (Treat) is,” McCortney said. “But I’m a much bigger spreadsheet nerd than he is. I don’t mind wading through the weeds.”
He said he is also disappointed by the influx of outside money into the campaign.
“I have been the majority leader of the Oklahoma Senate for three years,” he said. “The Oklahoma legislature is considered the second most conservative legislature in the country, and they paint me to the left of Joe Biden. It’s just nonsense. I hope voters in this district know a lie when they see one.”
The Oklahoma primaries are scheduled for June 18. The polling stations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting — at each county’s board of elections office — is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Primary contest to determine winner in Senate 13 contest
