In both 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District, Frank Lucas, who in 2013, floated his own paranoid bit of fiction when in a radio interview, he claimed that the Obama administration was “leading a conspiracy to buy up all the bullets so they’re not available to us”. At the point Rep. Lucas was wetting his pants at the thought of this sinister takeover, the theory had already been debunked not just by the administration, but by the NRA (who you’d think would be the first to cry foul). Lucas was not content just to push this as a theory, actually trying to legislate based off of it to ban any federal agency outside of the Pentagon from buying ammunition (it didn’t pass, because, y’know, crazy talk). That was, of course, when he wasn’t working supporters up into a lather on his own website about “the truth about Benghazi” for years after the attack took place.
Anyway, Lucas found his way into office in a special election prior to the 1994 mid-terms to replace Glenn English, and his upset victory for the GOP was considered to be a sign of the “Red Wave” to come in the ‘94 mid-terms. And, for the past 23 years, as his district has been gerrymandered to be more and more conservative (currently it sits at a “mere” +26 Republican lean), he’s grown bolder and bolder in his conservative agenda, having voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act (which repeals key parts of the Glass-Steagall Financial Regulation Act, and opened the door for big banks to create the 2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage Housing Crisis), the Iraq War Resolution, the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, and was a co-sponsor for a bill to create a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2006. Through most of the past decade, he’s voted against the Equal Pay Bill, the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, denying health insurance to millions of children, against ENDA (allowing the continued discrimination of LGBT citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace), against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBT citizens against Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, against increased regulations on offshore oil rigs after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and against the DREAM Act, against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. He has twice voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against the new version of the Violence Against Women Act, voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown and after 16 days, voted to keep the government closed. He’s also repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted to try and stop Syrian Refugees from being resettled in our country, and voted to try and prevent the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty from being enacted because… well, conspiracy theories, I suppose.
This past year, Lucas didn’t just ignore scientific experts on climate change, but dismissed a World Health Organization report linking pesticides made by the manufacturer Monsanto, such as Roundup, as causing higher risk for cancer, calling it “shoddy work”. Big surprise, he receives donations to his campaign coffers from Monsanto.
Rep. Lucas’ voting record gets uglier by the day:
- February 16th, 2017: Lucas votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- May 4th, 2017: Lucas votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Lucas would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- October 3rd, 2017: Lucas votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- December 19th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
- February 18th, 2018: Lucas and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District has a mere +26 Republican lean, per the Cook Partisan Voting Index, thus why he won re-election in 2016 by over forty points. In 2018, he yet again faces no primary challenger, and will face off against one of two Democratic candidates, Frankie Robbins or Murray Thibodeaux. Considering that at his last town hall, Rep. Lucas was quoted as not just saying he would vote for the vanity project and waste of taxpayer dollars that is Donald Trump’s border wall, but that Trump was “the reason I turned Republican. I want a businessman in there. I’m sick of the politicians”, it seems like he’s cast his lot with Cheeto Mussolini. No matter how disastrous the downfall of Trump might be, though, his district is so red, that unless Lucas retires or sees a primary challenger who attacks him on his loyalty to the most corrupt president in American history, he’s regrettably not going to be leaving Washington anytime soon.
One Year Ago, June 16th, 2017: Frank Lucas (OK)… 2017 Update
Two Year Ago, June 16th, 2016: Frank Lucas (OK)…Original Profile
Three Years Ago, June 16th, 2015: Henry Rayhons (IA)