First of all, I am a senior at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, NAIA Div I in Alva, Oklahoma.
Secondly, I don't consider Oklahoma to be completely in the south. Oklahoma is in the Southwest, Southcentral, Southeast, and Midwest. Where I am at (Northwest Oklahoma) is in the High Plains of the Rocky Mountains.
It is true that Oklahoma is primarily Democratic in Nature. We have had more Democratic Governor's than GOP Govenor's. We recently elected a Democratic Governor in the 2002 Mid-Terms.
I grew up on the eastern side of Oklahoma City (the largest city in the USA) (Land-Area). The Western 2/3 of the state are Republican and the eastern 1/3 are Democrat.
The Oklahoma Democrats seem to me to be a bit more liberal than the Southern Democrats, especially in the Northeastern Corner of the state.
A little bit of history, Oklahoma has only voted for 1 Democrat in the past 13 presidential elections, dating back to 1952. That person was LBJ in 1964.
Oklahoma did not even vote for JFK, we voted for Richard Nixon.
Why that is, I am not quite sure, but several of the posts I have read I seem to agree with, that we vote GOP in Federal Offices (President, Senate, most House) and we vote Democrat at the lower levels (Governor, Lt. Governor, State Senate, State House, Sheriffs, etc.)
Currently, Oklahoma has
1 Democrat Governor,
1 Republican Lt. Governor,
2 Republican US Senators,
4 Republican US Representative,
1 Democrat US Representative.
Our lower level include Democrat Auditor/Inspector, Democrat Atty Gen, Democrat Treasurer, Democrat Sec of Education, Democrat Insurance Commissioner, Republican Labor Commish, 3 Republican GOP Corporation Commissioners
Welcome! I'm most happy to see another OK Rep on the forum. Or even another okie for that matter.
I might add that the Insurance Commissioner is a joke and for some odd reason thinks he can get elected to the Senate. Must have been a drunken hallucination.
Ken
