Today, Okies went to the polls in a special election to choose the successors to a Republican state senate and state house member. The final returns are now in and with all votes counted, we have picked up both seats. In the 44th senate district, located in the inner Oklahoma City suburbs, crossing into the city limits, Michael Brooks-Jimenez has won by a margin of 54.6% to 45.4%. In the 75th house district, which lies in the Tulsa suburbs near Broken Arrow, Karen Gaddis won by a margin of 52.3% to 47.7%.
Those are Democrats’ 3rd and 4th pickups of the year. Notably, while these two seats sit in suburban areas that are educated and diverse, where we have been strong recently, Trump won both of these seats by double digits, and Romney won both of them by over 20 points. This aren’t just pickups, they are pickups in red territory that has been that way for a long time. The senate now stands at 40R —7D — 1 vacant and the house at 72R — 27D — 2 vacant. While Oklahoma Democrats obviously have work to do, this is a great sign moving forward, and the education crisis which has given the party a new jolt of life after a few rough cycles shows no signs of abating. After all, of the 3 pictures on Brooks-Jimenez’s website, 2 are in a classroom. Karen Gaddis’s slogan was even more direct: “Save. Our. Schools.”
As many times as the obituary for the Democratic Party has been written in the past few months, we seem to have some signs of life in us yet.