Currently there is pending legislation to opt out of the Super Tuesday primary elections on March 1st and move the Oklahoma primaries as far back as April 5th. At the behest of Chairman Dave Weston, without the approval or acknowledgment of the State Committee, SB 233 was presented and passed in the Senate. Now the bill is waiting to be heard on Wednesday, April 1st, in the Elections and Ethics Committee chaired by Representative Paul Wesselhoft.

If this piece of legislation were to pass, I believe that not only would it diminish Oklahoma’s role in the national debate, but it will also discourage participation and disenfranchise Republican voters. After the Super Tuesday primaries are held, many of the presidential candidates will drop out of the race leaving many Republican voters empty handed.

The claim for the legislation is that we must align Oklahoma with new RNC rules in order to maintain our proportional delegates. Not only is there a better way to comply with the new rules, ironically taking the route Chairman Weston has decided to take would strip Oklahoma of its proportional delegates and turn us into a ‘winner-take-all’ state.

As a candidate for State Party Chairman I wanted to weigh in on the pending legislation and express my concern that Oklahoma primary Republican voters will be losing their voice if this bill passes. Oklahoma is the reddest state in the Union and every Presidential candidate should feel obligated to visit with our voters. However, when we allow attempts to move our primary date as far back as April 5th, we are essentially saying that Oklahoma should not matter to these candidates. If the OKGOP were to consider any primary date change it should be for an earlier primary date, not a later one.

If I were the State Party Chairman today, I would take all of these arguments to the State Committee and ask them to call on the entire Elections & Ethics House Committee to kill this bill. If you agree with me and want to keep Oklahoma relevant in the 2016 Presidential Primaries, please call the members of the Elections & Ethics House Committee by April 1st and ask them to vote no on SB 233.

Dedicated to Liberty,

Randy Brogdon
www.RandyBrogdon.com