The sprint for the 1st District

Markwayne Mullin's appointment as Secretary of Homeland Security set off a series of electoral dominoes. As Congressman Kevin Hern opted to seek Mullin's Senate seat, a dozen candidates filed to succeed Hern in the 1st District. Dan Rooney dropped out after President Trump endorsed another candidate, leaving 11.

If you're trying to take off from a short runway, you'd better have a lot of thrust. Some elected officials who have run credible campaigns in the past didn't step up this time, perhaps because they knew they couldn't get off the ground quickly enough.

In an earlier entry, we saw how important it was for a candidate to have ready cash to lend his campaign; three months is not enough time for fundraising. A half-dozen have managed either to raise or borrow six figures or more: Nathaniel "Nathan" Butterfield, Jed Cochran, Kim David, Jackson Lahmeyer, Mark Tedford, Todd Woods.

I saw most of the also-rans at the 1st Congressional District Republican Party candidate forum at NSU-BA last month. (My thread of live tweets starts here.) Kelly Walsh is a Ron Paul, anti-war, anti-Trump Libertarian who wants the US to stop fighting Iran. Nancy Dyson is retired after a career working in prisons. Todd Woods looks and sounds like a good ol' country boy with a lot of opinions; he wants congressmen caught insider trading to be hanged publicly.

Courtney Gill is a Minnesotan who married an Oklahoman and moved here after acquiring an MBA at Oxford; she seems like an intelligent and pleasant nerd, committed to social and economic conservatism, and gave thoughtful answers instead of uttering the prescribed buzzwords, but she doesn't seem very canny about electoral politics.

Corporation Commissioner Kim David said all the right things at the forum, but I couldn't forget that she voted for $2.5 billion in tax increases as a state senator and also backed a bill that would have made it easier to lower the threshold to raise taxes without a vote of the people. In her 2022 race for Corporation Commission, she attracted plenty of cash from lobbyists and donors connected with regulated industries, and she had the poisoned "apple" endorsement from the left-wing Oklahomans for Public Education.

I know I'm supposed to be analytical and not intuitive, but I have to say: Jackson Lahmeyer creeps me out. Always has. He looks like he came from the Uncanny Valley. When he smiles, I half-expect the rest of him to vanish, like the Cheshire Cat.

I have more substantive concerns about Lahmeyer. In 2022, when he challenged US Sen. James Lankford's bid for a full term, Lahmeyer bore false witness in ads attacking Lankford, claiming, "Senator Lankford said under oath in a deposition that a 13 year old is old enough to consent for sex." I had planned to vote for Lahmeyer as a protest against Lankford's wobbles on immigration, but after that false attack I couldn't reward Lahmeyer.

Lahmeyer has hosted Trump's sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and close associates like Gen. Mike Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, and Roger Stone. I have no problem with pastors applying Biblical principles to politics or even running for office, but to me, it's always looked like Lahmeyer was chasing celebrity, engaged in sycophantic social climbing and networking rather than the ministry of the Gospel and its application in the public sphere. His campaign to be noticed by Donald Trump paid off with an endorsement.

The candidate forum happened shortly after Trump's endorsement. When asked if he would align himself with Josh Brecheen and the Freedom Caucus (pro-liberty, small government, socially conservative) or Stephanie Bice and the Main Street Caucus (pro-corporate-welfare, big government), Lahmeyer said it was premature to commit to a caucus, and he mentioned calls with US House Speaker Mike Johnson's team and Majority Leader Steve Scalise who "walked [him] through all this." It suggested to me he intended to do whatever was necessary to climb the House's social ladder, too, rather than being a Tom Coburn-style maverick.

Finally -- and this is intuition again, not analysis -- Lahmeyer has a very mannered style of speech that sounds like he's trying to imitate a 1950s radio preacher. It adds to the feeling of inauthenticity, the feeling that he's playing a role, not pursuing a calling.

I have lots of friends who like and support Lahmeyer. Others back him because of the Trump connection. I understand, but I disagree. Another friend thinks that Lahmeyer as the Republican nominee puts the 1st District in play for the Democrats by alienating independents. Philip Jackson, a pastor at Evergreen Baptist Church, whom I know from his days as a political consultant and a congressional staffer, has spelled out his concerns about Lahmeyer in a Facebook reel.

Three of the major candidates were not at the forum.

Nathan Butterfield doesn't even live in the 1st Congressional District. He lives in the 2nd District, where Josh Brecheen is running for re-election. Butterfield had been running for the open seat in House District 9, had loaned his campaign $100,000, and was using CAMP for campaign consulting, but then decided to switch to run for Congress. Pass.

Jed Cochran is a lobbyist who spent 4 years as Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum's Chief of Intergovernmental Affairs and then joined Stuart McCalman at the firm Bynum co-founded, Capitol Ventures Government Relations. Pass.

Mark Tedford has served two terms in the Oklahoma House without ever having to run for office. He was elected to an open seat without opposition, and then re-elected without opposition. His legislative ratings from conservative groups are pretty underwhelming, with high scores on Jason Murphey's Capitol Conformity Index and D- scores on the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index. On the other hand, he's got an A rating from the NRA and OK2A, a lifetime 87 from OCPA, with scores improving year by year, and he was one of only two candidates to complete the thorough iVoterGuide questionnaire. (Woods was the other.) You can read his Oklahoma Republican platform questionnaire here.

Tedford has a master's degree in Christian apologetics from Biola University. When he spoke to the Patriot Pastors group at Heartland Church, Tedford took the opportunity to talk about the doctrine of Christian vocation. I was there -- I decided last minute to attend -- and I was impressed at the depth and thoughtfulness of his words. Friends who have known Mark for decades in a church context tell me he's the real deal.

I'm persuaded that Mark Tedford is the best choice on the Republican primary ballot for the 1st District, and I'll be voting for him next Tuesday.