Boles, Stevens among primary winners as voters reject minimum wage proposal
Tuttle-area voters helped send their current state representative toward statewide office Tuesday while selecting the Republican positioned to succeed him in House District 51.
State Rep. Brad Boles won the Republican nomination for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Tuesday, defeating Justin Hornback with nearly 98% of Election Day precincts reporting.
Boles received 196,679 votes, or 55.31%, while Hornback received 158,926 votes, or 44.69%. Boles’ overall advantage stood at 37,753 votes, according to unofficial results from the Oklahoma State Election Board.
Boles carried every method of voting. He received 5,928 absentee-mail votes to Hornback’s 4,136, giving Boles approximately 58.9% of ballots cast by mail. Boles also won early voting 16,680 to 12,289, or approximately 57.6%.
Boles currently represents House District 51, which includes Tuttle, Bridge Creek, Blanchard, Marlow and surrounding areas. He did not seek reelection to the House while pursuing the Corporation Commission seat.
Cole Stevens won the Republican primary to replace Boles, defeating Cody Elliott by 411 votes.
Stevens received 3,227 votes, or 53.40%, while Elliott received 2,816 votes, or 46.60%. All 23 precincts in the district had reported.
The race was almost even before Election Day.
Elliott carried absentee-mail voting 79 to 72, while Stevens won early voting 233 to 218. Combining those categories, Stevens held an eight-vote advantage, 305 to 297, heading into Tuesday.
Election Day voters decided the contest. Stevens received 2,922 Election Day votes compared with Elliott’s 2,519, giving Stevens a 403-vote advantage among those voters. That accounted for all but eight votes of his final 411-vote margin.
More than 90% of the 6,043 votes in the House District 51 contest were cast on Election Day.
Boles did not leave the House because of term limits. He remained eligible to seek another term but instead ran for Corporation Commissioner. Stevens and Elliott were the only candidates who filed for House District 51, positioning Stevens to succeed Boles.
Oklahoma voters rejected State Question 832, which would have gradually raised the state minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2029 and tied subsequent increases to changes in the cost of living.
With nearly 98% of precincts reporting, 343,125 voters, or 55.76%, opposed the proposal. A total of 272,266 voters, or 44.24%, supported it.
The proposal would also have removed several exemptions contained in Oklahoma’s existing minimum wage law, including exemptions affecting some part-time workers, students, minors, agricultural workers, domestic service workers and newspaper vendors or carriers.
Before the election, Sen. Lonnie Paxton and Reps. Brad Boles and Jonathan Wilk were among more than 100 state legislators who signed a letter opposing the proposal.
The June 1 letter, addressed to local and county officials, argued that the measure could raise labor costs for municipalities and counties and force reductions in public services.
The lawmakers urged opposition to the proposal “not only to protect jobs and opportunity in Oklahoma, but also to protect municipal services, county services, and taxpayers.”
The letter also argued that wages should continue to be driven by market forces rather than an automatic increase tied to a national inflation index.
In House District 56, incumbent Republican Dick Lowe will face Democrat Linda Pedro in the Nov. 3 general election after both advanced without primary opposition.
Kevin West led the Republican primary for labor commissioner and was set to advance to an August runoff against John Pfeiffer. Bob Sullivan led the insurance commissioner race and was set to face Marty Quinn in the runoff.
Robert Franklin had secured one runoff position in the superintendent of public instruction race, while James Taylor and John Cox remained in contention for the second.
Gentner Drummond led the Republican primary for governor, with Mike Mazzei in second. Both were positioned to advance to the August runoff, although their order of finish remained unsettled.
Kevin Hern won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, while incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Cole secured the nomination in Congressional District 4.
T.W. Shannon won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor without a runoff. Jon Echols won the attorney general primary, and Cindy Byrd secured the Republican nomination for state treasurer.
Republican voters will return to the polls Aug. 25 to decide several statewide nominations in which no candidate received a majority Tuesday.
With no candidate approaching the majority required to avoid a runoff, Drummond and Mazzei appeared positioned to advance to the Aug. 25 election. Their order of finish remained unsettled late Tuesday.
All results remained unofficial until certified by election officials.
