After the primary election caused chaos at the Oklahoma State Capitol, News 9 asked political analyst Scott Mitchell for his thoughts on the election results.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Greg McCourtney, who had been nominated to be the next Senate pro tempore, lost to newcomer Jonathan Wingard in the election for Senate District 13.
“It was shocking,” Mitchell said. “It was basically, ‘Is there an ideological shift?’ And then last night, with Greg McCourtney leaving, it started all kinds of dominoes falling.”
Mitchell said the ideological shift suggests Oklahoma may be moving further to the right politically.
As for Tuesday night’s unexpected upset, Mitchell said it may have had something to do with the Oklahoma Senate’s failure to take action on the tax cuts.
“Remember those hearings?” Mitchell said. “The Senate wouldn’t take up the tax cuts.”
But Mitchell said the debate over tax cuts doesn’t just affect Sen. McCourtney.
“There’s a lot of other things, like vaccines and guns, but this is a shift to the right,” Mitchell said. “Sen. Jessica Garvin lost, we have a couple of people running in the runoff. It’s just a shift to the right across the board. So the agenda is [they] Pushed to the Senate, [then] The Senate is not going to act, that’s what the voters think.”
Oklahoma City Ward 7 City Councilwoman Nikki Nice, who made the switch from local to state politics, defeated former Oklahoma State Senator Connie Johnson in the 48th Senate District.
“It would be a big jump for her,” Mitchell said, “She has a great reputation in the Legislature and she’s going to win a Senate seat. But there are 40 Republicans in the state Senate and it’s not going to change much.”
Mitchell said Nice will work in that caucus with the new Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Jody Carter.
