Josh Brecheen last candidate standing from 14-Republican field

Former state Sen. Josh Brecheen moved a step closer on Tuesday to filling the congressional seat once held by Republican Tom Coburn, winning the GOP nomination for the district that covers much of eastern Oklahoma.

Brecheen, who worked on Coburn’s U.S. Senate staff, won a hard-fought runoff victory over state Rep. Avery Frix, of Muskogee, to replace Rep. Markwayne Mullin in the U.S. House.

Unofficial results from the Oklahoma Election Board show Brecheen, of Coalgate, received 52% of the vote and won by 2,833 votes out of 64,181 cast.

Near giddy in his watch party remarks, the 43-year-old rancher recalled that he made the decision to run for the 2nd Congressional District seat just hours before candidate filing closed and that he had no campaign staff and no money. A total of 14 Republicans filed for the seat; the field was narrowed to Frix and Brecheen in the June 28 primary.

“When the Lord asks you to humble yourself and do something you don’t quite understand for a season, that’s where the character gets built,” he said. “And, y’all, our nation needs character.”

In a Facebook post, Frix, 28, said, “Thank you, everyone, for your prayers, friendship and support throughout this campaign. I congratulate Josh Brecheen. I’m proud of the race we ran, and I’ll never give up on the fight for our conservative values. God Bless America!”

Brecheen, who served in the Oklahoma Senate from 2010 to 2018, will face Democrat Naomi Andrews and independent Ben Robinson in the Nov. 8 general election.

The 2nd Congressional District covers all or part of 28 counties in eastern Oklahoma. Mullin has represented the district since 2013, though it has been modified to reflect the latest population counts. Coburn, a Muskogee Republican, held the seat from 1995 to 2001.

Brecheen hammered Frix throughout the runoff campaign for voting in 2018 for a $447 million tax bill that increased taxes on gasoline, cigarettes and oil and gas production. Brecheen, who was in the state Senate then, was among the 10 senators who voted against the bill. Frix countered that he had voted multiple times for cuts to the state income tax.

The vote was a major difference between the two candidates, both of whom professed strong loyalty to former President Donald Trump, though neither was endorsed by him.

Brecheen burnished his conservative credentials when he got the endorsement of the House Freedom Fund, which is a campaign fund associated with Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, and Marjorie Taylor Green, of Georgia.

Frix and Brecheen are both members of the Choctaw Nation but took different stances on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which has led to six tribal reservations being affirmed since 2020.

Brecheen has criticized the ruling, claiming it has created law enforcement problems in eastern Oklahoma, and has called for Congress to take action. Frix has said the issue affects only Oklahomans and shouldn’t be addressed by Congress until all members of the delegation agree on legislation.

A political action committee started by the Choctaw Nation has been backing Frix in the race.

The race drew millions of dollars in outside spending, much of it coming from the School Freedom Fund, which backed Brecheen; the group supports school choice and is connected to the Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax organization that backed Coburn’s campaigns.

Frix got major help from a group called Fund for a Working Congress, which has reported receipts from dark money groups, including the Sooner State Leadership Fund, which has spent millions of dollars attacking Gov. Kevin Stitt.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Josh Brecheen last GOP candidate standing in congressional race