After a campaign that lasted more than a year and a half, Republican Kevin Hern claimed Oklahoma’s first congressional district seat Tuesday night.
Hern announced he was running in March 2017 and said Tuesday it was humbling to spend so much time in the first district.
"To listen and to learn what makes the First District a place where the United States Constitution still matters. To hear and to see that hard work still matters. To experience the conversations that free markets and limited government regulations are still the foundation of the First District and this great nation," Hern said.
Hern emerged from a five-way Republican primary in June and an August runoff against former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris to best Democrat Tim Gilpin 59 to 41 percent.
But in an Election Day twist, Hern will be in the House minority party after Democrats flipped enough seats to gain control of the chamber. Hern said that’s not necessarily a problem.
"I think it’s going to force everybody to work together. I just heard a longtime Democrat spokesperson, former DNC chair speak and say, ‘We can’t be worrying about impeachment. We’ve got to be worried about legislation.’ And that’s really good. That’s music to my ears that we can start working on common grounds and finding stuff we can get done," Hern said.
Hern’s spot in Congress has been held by a Republican ever since Jim Inhofe’s election to it in 1986. Hern steps into the seat Tuesday. It was vacated by Jim Bridenstine earlier this year when he became NASA administrator.
There could be reason for the two of them to work together.
"There’s some real issues out there that we’ve got to be looking at with some of the foreign relationships we have with the space station and some other — you know, you hear about the Space Force, there’s some opportunities there for us to figure out, I’m sure," Hern said. "It’s bipartisan. Usually, NASA and space is bipartisan."
Hern shares many of the conservative positions Bridenstine campaigned on, including a goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
