Republican Jonathan Wingard realized a dream come true when he won the District 13 State Senate race in close balloting in the June 18 Primary Election.
Wingard, 42, of Ada, beat incumbent senator, Greg Mc-Cortney, by a 261-vote margin. District 13 covers parts of Garvin, McClain, and Murray Counties and all of Hughes and Pontotoc Counties.
“Tonight is just the first step in a journey that we’ve embarked on together and I have no doubt that with your help we will achieve many great things for years to come,” Wingard said in a statement after his victory. “With your help we were able to swing the momentum towards commonsense conservatism. We will ride this momentum into the state capitol and fight for the kind of representative government that our constitution guarantees us all.”
Murray County voters also went for the conservative Republican by 417 to 351 votes.
Because there are no other candidates from other parties in the race, this was a winner-takeall election.
McCortney was first elected in 2016.
In other races affecting Murray County residents, Republican Ryan Eaves, 44, Atoka, stormed to victory in the hotly contested District 22 Sate Representative race, beating challenger Troy Golden, Tishomingo, with 62% of the vote. The district covers Atoka, Coal, Johnston and Murray Counties.
Eaves, who describes himself as a rancher, businessman and a man of faith and family, won the election 2,332 to 1,429. He also carried Murray County, garnering 675 votes to Golden’s 502.
Eaves will now assume the District 22 office now held by Speaker of the House Charles McCall, who was termed out of office.
Since there were no candidates from other political parties in that race, Eaves will not have to go to a general election and will assume the office on January 1.
Elsewhere on the political scene, 11-term Republican Congressman Tom Cole, of U.S. District 4, fended off well-funded political newcomer, Paul Bondar, to win his party’s nomination. Cole will now head to the general election in November.
The chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Cole zeroed in on Bondar’s recent move to Oklahoma from Texas as one of his campaign strategies against his challenger and it worked.
Cole won the district, which covers a big swath of southern Oklahoma, by more than 24,000 votes. The final tally was 40,393 for Cole and 16,127 for Bondar. Several other candidates in the Republican race barely managed to scratch the surface.
On the Democratic side, perennial candidate Mary Brannon, of Washington, defeated Kody Macaulay, of Moore, by a 3,000vote margin to win her party’s nomination.
“If I am fortunate enough to win the November election, the voters of the Fourth District can count on me to fight for a safer and strongerAmerica by working to increase pay for our military men and women, investing in medical and weather research, and in securing our border, Cole said in a post election statement. “My top priority will always be representing the views, the values, and the interests of the people of my district and of the state of Oklahoma.”
In other balloting, Republican Tammy Townley, of Ardmore, beatApril Brown in the District 48 State Representative race. Only a small portion of western Murray County voters are in that district.
On a statewide level, Republican J. Brian Bingman, Sapulpa, won the corporation commissioner race by a comfortable 53% margin over two other candidates, Justin Horback, Broken Arrow, and Russell Ray Edmond.
He will face one Democrat Harold Spradling, Oklahoma City and Libertarian Chad Williams, Choctaw, in the general election in November.
