Lankford heavily favored to win US Senate seat

Oklahoma City (AP) — A longtime Baptist minister who felt a calling to run for Congress four years ago, James Lankford is poised to cap a meteoric rise from director of a Christian youth camp to Oklahoma's junior U.S. senator.

The two-term U.S. House member with a reputation as a workhorse and bit of a policy wonk is the Republican nominee and heavily favored to win the seat being vacated early by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn.

He faces Democratic nominee state Sen. Connie Johnson of Oklahoma City and independent Mark Beard in Tuesday's election.

Although Democrats in Oklahoma still hold a razor-thin margin over Republicans in voter registration, voting trends over the last decade are weighted in favor of Republicans, especially in races for federal offices. The state hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide, and David Boren was the last Democrat to win an open U.S. Senate seat in 1978.

Lankford, 46, also enjoys a huge fundraising advantage, with the latest campaign finance reports showing total receipts of nearly $4 million, compared to about $131,000 for Johnson.

Yet Lankford is maintaining a grueling last-week campaign schedule with stops in dozens of cities and towns across western, southern and northeast sections of the state, even venturing into the heavily Democratic counties in far southeastern Oklahoma known as "Little Dixie."

"I walked into a barbershop in Hugo, and when I told them I was a Republican, I had to ask: 'That's still legal here, isn't it?' Lankford joked. "But by the end of that conversation, he said: 'You have my vote.'"

Despite his four years in Congress, which included a fast climb into choice committee assignments and the chairmanship of the House Republican Policy Committee, Lankford paints himself on the campaign trail as a Washington outsider, a citizen legislator much like the man he is seeking to replace. Lankford rails against federal debt and government spending and vows he'll do more than just complain; he'll do the intensive work he says is needed to stop deficit spending.

Johnson acknowledges she's facing an uphill battle, but the 10-year veteran of the Oklahoma Senate is used to having numbers that aren't in her favor. She is one of just two African-Americans and four women in the 48-member Senate, where Republicans hold a 2-to-1 advantage.

"We may not have that money, but we've got the passion and the spirit and the motivation," said Johnson, 62. "I'm happy to be in this race, and I'm excited because if nothing else, we are making people aware of the role of government in their lives, and I'm having a ball doing it."

Even though her positions — in support of abortion rights, gay marriage and marijuana legalization — often put her at odds with the Republican majority and even some members of her own caucus, she has a reputation for passionately debating against bills that she thinks hurt everyday Oklahomans.

Johnson has become a hero among the state's pro-marijuana movement, and spoke at several rallies this summer in favor of two separate pot initiatives — one to allow the medicinal use of cannabis and another for outright legalization. Supporters of both measures were unsuccessful in getting enough signatures to place the questions on the ballot.

by Sean Murphy, Associated Press

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Gayly – November 1, 2014 @ 2pm