The Democratic primary to see who will fill Amanda Swope’s vacant 71st Oklahoma House seat is crowded. Swope left the House to become Tulsa’s first director of tribal policy and partnerships.
Four hopefuls from four different generations are vying for the seat that covers Riverside Drive from downtown to just past 71st Street.
Despite the large age gap between the candidates, Dennis Baker says he doesn’t think age will play a factor in the election.
“I think it’s more about policy. It’s more about character. It’s more about experience,” Baker said. “I never really look at age. I kind of look at, you know, what do you stand for?”
Baker, a baby boomer, lost a race for Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District to Rep. Kevin Hern in November. Despite the defeat, the former FBI agent picked up significant support in the 71st District.
The youngest candidate in the field is 24-year-old Gen Z member Hudson Harder. Harder, a teacher and grocery store employee, says it might be time for a new generation to take to the Statehouse.
“We don’t have a lot of young people at the Legislature, and I think that’s a major gap that we have in representation frankly,” Harder said. “Young people have a lot of ideas; we see the world in a different way than people in the boomer generation.”
Third candidate Amanda Clinton was communications director for Monroe Nichols’ Tulsa mayoral campaign. The Gen X-er said competition is good for both voters and candidates.
“I think more choices are better,” Clinton said. “When we have more choices, candidates are forced to really hone in their positions and then the people get to decide who’s the best person for the job.”
The last generation represented in the race are millennials. Ben Riggs teaches at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs. Swope encouraged Riggs to run for her vacant seat. He said his generation has a good mixture of experience and energy.
“I just am in a good position to be able to take the wisdom of those who have come before me and I think that I have enough life experience to overcome some of the issues that younger candidates might face,” Riggs said. “Being a father of three, a husband of 10 years and having been in the (teaching) profession for almost a decade. I think that that real world experience is going to be very helpful.”
Education
The topic on the tip of each candidate’s tongue is education.
“Being in the classroom as long as I have, I’ve just seen, kind of, the issues that our state’s facing,” Riggs said. “I feel like I have a good grasp and a good perspective of some ways that we can, can change the issues that we’re seeing right now in the state.”
Another candidate with classroom experience is Clinton. Clinton has worked as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University. Clinton said there’s one person who’s damaging education in Oklahoma more than anyone else.
“Ryan Walters has been the most detrimental influence on education in our state’s history I believe,” Clinton said. “When we have a teacher shortage he’s still emboldened to call teachers terrorists. It doesn’t matter how much we raise teacher pay when the top education official in the state is constantly undermining public ed.”
During a legislative hearing in 2023, Walters called teachers’ unions “terrorist organizations.”
Baker mentioned a northeast state that could be a model for Oklahoma’s education system.
“For example, I always talk about Massachusetts. Their taxes are higher than Oklahoma, but they have like, the best funded and the best school system in terms of achievement. One of the best in this country,” Baker said.
U.S. News & World Report ranks Massachusetts as having the third best public education system in the country. Oklahoma is ranked 49th.
Oklahoma teacher Harder talked about a specific piece of bipartisan education legislation around educator pay that he would support.
“Senate Bill 201 by Senator Adam Pugh,” Harder said. “He’s a Republican, but he’s proposing a minimum salary increase. That would make all people with bachelor’s degrees have a $50,000 salary if they’re a teacher.”
The primary election takes place on April 1st.
