Second District Congress Race
Boren, was elected to the second district in 2004 and is the only Democrat in the Oklahoma congressional delegation. The district voted 59 percent for George W. Bush in 2004, and in 2008 gave John McCain 66 percent. McCain won every county in the district
In 2010 six Republicans ran for the chance to take on Boren in the General Election. While Boren had won with 71 percent of the vote in 2008, he received just 57% in 2010. In the2010 race Boren had to do extensive campaigning and spent $1.8 million on the race. The Republican nominee, Charles Thompson, spent just over $100,000. Thompson has yet to announce if he will make another try at the seat.
The heavily Democratic second district covers 26 counties in eastern Oklahoma, stretching south from the Kansas state line to the Red River border with Texas. After the 2010 census and minor redistricting, the district remains the most Democratic in the state by registration. In redistricting, some Republican parts of Rogers County were added, but Democrat-leaning parts of Marshall County were also inserted. Yet, even before Boren's announcement, both the national and state Republican campaign organizations had already targeted the seat for 2012.
Former Congressman Brad Carson of Claremore, was the first Democrat to declare interest in the race and was the apparent front-runner for his party's nomination. But, at the end of June, Carson said that the more he thought about it, the less inclined he was to return to the demanding schedule of a member of Congress. A few weeks later it was announced that President Obama was nominating Carson to be the general counsel of the U.S. Army. Carson is a business and law professor at the University of Tulsa. He held the 2nd District seat until running unsuccessfully in 2004 against Republican Tom Coburn who won the U.S. Senate seat.
Former state Sen. Kenneth Corn, of Poteau also decided against making the race. Corn said that pressing personal matters, including the recent death of his mother, "changed my needs and the needs of my family." Corn, 34, could not run for reelection due to term limits last year, and was the Democrat nominee for Lieutenant Governor, losing to Todd Lamb. Corn had only a 26% cumulative score on the Oklahoma Conservative Index, published by the Oklahoma Constitution.
On September 22nd, Wayne Herriman, an eastern Oklahoma businessman, became the first Democrat to announce for the seat. Herriman, 59, said he is "sick and tired" of the way politicians are running Washington. He sees going to Congress as his "chance to make a difference."
After graduating from Warner High School in eastern Oklahoma in 1970, Herriman attended Connor's State College, graduating in 1972. After being drafted and serving two years in the Army, he returned to college at Oklahoma State University and graduated in 1976 with a Bachelors Degree in Agriculture. He then worked as a ranch foreman for a year and a half in northwestern Oklahoma, before taking a job in Muskogee as a salesman with Muskogee Seed Co. After the company was bought out by another seed company, he worked for two other seed companies before opening his own, Sunburst Seed Co., in Muskogee in 1984. A decade later, he bought another seed company, Holman Seed Farm in Collinsville. He also has Sunburst Spraying Co. in Muskogee. He and his wife Patty, have been married for 37 years and have four children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Wallace became the second announced Democrat candidate on October 11. He will have a formal campaign kickoff and tour the district later this year. Wallace, 48, served as District Attorney in LeFlore and Latimer counties from 1999 to 2004. He left that post to take a position as assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Wallace and his wife, Tonya, live in Fort Gibson and have three children.
Sequoyah County Tea Party leader Bill Broker says he plans to join the race, but has not yet filed with the Federal Election Commission. Broker retired from the Federal government serving overseas with the State Department, working in law enforcement and security. He is an avid historian and Civil War historical reenactment buff.
Other Democrats considering the race include former state Sen. Ben Robinson of Muskogee (14% cumulative Conservative Index score), and current state Sen. Jim Wilson of Tahlequah (15% cumulative conservative rating) who ran against Boren two years ago.
On July14, Rep. George Faught became the first candidate and the first Republican to officially enter the race. Faught is the longtime owner and operator of a Muskogee carpet cleaning business which he runs with his wife and two of their children. He is in the middle of his third term in the Oklahoma Legislature after becoming the first Republican ever elected to the legislative district. He has a 73% cumulative average on the Oklahoma Conservative Index. Fought pledges to limit his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives to no more than three full terms if he is elected.
In August, retired Lt. Col. Dakota Wood, 48, of Claremore joined the race. Wood says he wants to bring "political discipline" to Washington, and that his top priority would be reducing the federal deficit. As a 20-year Marine Corps veteran, the retired Lt. Colonel says he likes what he hears from Oklahoma U.S. Senator Tom Coburn and plans to copy his economic beliefs about solving this country's budget crisis. Wood says that is why is seeking the Republican nomination. He believes the country might not be in the economic dilemma that it is in, had congress listened and done what Senator Coburn recommended in making dramatic cuts in the budget. Wood is a Naval Academy graduate and after retiring from the military in 2005, he went to work for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a group that consults with Congress and the Pentagon.
Adair County businessman Markwayne Mullin announced he was joining the race for the Republican nomination on September 6. Mullin took over the family plumbing business, Mullin Plumbing, 14 years ago with six employees and has expanded it into one of the largest service companies in Oklahoma with more than 100 employees. He also owns Mullin Environmental, Mullin Services and Mullin Properties along with ranching operations in Adair and Wagoner counties. Mullin is known across a good portion of the district because of his business ads and his employees who travel the state in red vans. Mullin also hosts a Saturday morning radio program, House Talk, on conservative Talk Radio 1170 KFAQ in Tulsa.
The youngest of seven children, Mullin was raised in Adair County in Westville where he was known as a wrestling, rodeo and hunting enthusiast. He graduated from Stilwell High School and headed to college on a wrestling scholarship before returning to operate the family business. He received an associate's degree at OSU's Institute of Technology in Okmulgee.
Mullin says, "We need to restore America and stop the Obama administration from bankrupting our country even further." Mullin and his wife have two son's. He serves as a Youth Leader at Coweta 1st Assembly of God Church.
Former state Rep. Wayne Pettigrew formally announced his candidacy on September 12 in his hometown of McAlester. An experienced businessman and insurance broker, Pettigrew founded two Oklahoma-based companies that now have over $70 million in assets and 50 employees. The companies have over 6,000 shareholders in Oklahoma, with over 2,000 in the Second Congressional District.
Pettigrew was a state Representative from Edmond, a suburb north of Oklahoma City, serving from 1994 to 2004. His cumulative conservative rating on the Oklahoma Conservative Index was 76%.
Pettigrew was born and grew up in McAlester. He graduated from McAlester High School in 1980 and earned a business degree from East Central University in Ada. He returned to McAlester in 2009 to care for his mother who passed away in May 2010. Pettigrew and his wife, Toni, have two children, Alex -- a senior at the University of Oklahoma, and Drew, 14.
Dwayne Thompson is another Republican in the race. He grew up north of Owasso and was raised in a blue collar, union family. After graduating from Owasso High School, he played basketball at Claremore College. From there he moved on at Northeastern State University where he made the team and played for the remainder of his elgibility and earned a Bachelor's Degree. He spent the next ten years in sales.
In the early nineties, Thompson obtained a Masters degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and then moved to Montana as a church planter. He started two churches from zero and helped another church recover from a church split. One of the churches was in Muskogee.
A moral and fiscal conservative, Dwayne believes in the sanctity of life and traditional marriage. He believes in small, efficient government, a balanced budget amendment and says he is a strong supporter of the Constitution, especially the 2nd and 10th Amendments.
Dustin Rowe, a 35-year-old attorney from Tishomingo, has formed an exploratory committee. He says he would bring conservative ideals and sound judgment to Washington politics should he be elected. The lifelong second district resident began his interest in elective office at the early age of 18. That year, he registered as a Republican and ran for mayor of his hometown. Rowe became the nation's youngest mayor and served for two terms.
After working for U. S. Senator Don Nickles in Washington, D.C., Rowe and his wife, Nicole, moved to Stillwater to work on Wes Watkins' successful congressional campaign. At the age of 22, Dustin was named District Director for the newly-elected Republican congressman.
Rowe obtained a bachelor's degree from East Central University in Ada and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma. For the past decade he has been practicing law on Main Street in the community where he was raised and calls home. He also serves as city attorney and prosecutor to several small towns in the second congressional district.
Dustin and Nicole are the parents of two children, Price and Madison. The Rowe family are active members in the Tishomingo First Assembly of God church where Dustin has attended since he was eight years old.
It is clear that it will be a very competitive race, at least for the Republican nomination. And, depending on who eventually enters on the Democrat side, it could be an exciting general election campaign as well.
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