Minus Markwayne Mullin, GOP Senate hopefuls talk issues at chamber meeting in Oklahoma City

In another U.S. Senate debate missing the frontrunner, four Republicans hoping to succeed U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe talked immigration, inflation, gun rights and bipartisanship on Wednesday before state business leaders meeting in Oklahoma City.

With less than a week before the June 28 primary, the candidates covered familiar ground while speaking at the Oklahoma State Chamber’s annual meeting, blaming the Biden administration for many of the nation’s ills and vowing to take conservative principles to Washington.

State Sen. Nathan Dahm said that there were substantial differences among the candidates, even though the answers about issues were similar.

“It’s easy to say things on the campaign trail. It’s easy to make promises to be a fiscal conservative and then to go and vote for continuing resolutions that are unconstitutional,” said Dahm, of Broken Arrow, speaking of stop-gap congressional spending measures.

More: Oklahoma GOP candidates for Jim Inhofe seat face questions on issues, controversies

“It’s easy to say you’re for term limits and then like Congressman (Markwayne) Mullin to break your word when it becomes expedient for you, and I wish he was here today to answer for that, but he chooses not to be here.”

Mullin did not attend the debate, saying in a message read by moderator Alex Cameron, of News 9, that he had to stay in Washington to vote. Mullin also skipped the televised debate two weeks ago and a forum held last month by the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma.

Mullin, who has led public polls in the race since Inhofe announced his retirement in February, said in his statement that he does not miss votes except for “family emergencies.”

Mullin voted by proxy 84 times last year, meaning another member voted for him while he was away, and he was recorded as absent for another 10 votes.

12 candidates will vie to succeed Jim Inhofe, who is retiring

Before the debate, Alex Gray, who worked for the National Security Council under former President Donald Trump, announced that he had ended his own campaign for Inhofe’s seat, and he endorsed Luke Holland, who served as Inhofe’s chief of staff.

Gray’s name will still appear on the ballot, along with 12 other Republicans who filed as candidates for the seat.

If no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on Aug. 23. Early in-person voting begins Thursday.

More: Markwayne Mullin, T.W. Shannon lead GOP race for Inhofe seat, poll of Oklahoma voters shows

Dahm, Holland, former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon and former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt appeared at the debate and criticized the bipartisan effort in the Senate to craft gun safety legislation.

“It may be trite, but I think it’s true that people commit violent crime, not weapons,” Pruitt said, adding that the issue is much broader than guns.

“As to the current legislation being proposed, I would be very much against it because it incentivizes red flag laws at the state level.”

Red flag laws allow judges to deny possession of firearms to people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Dahm authored a bill that prevents the state from adopting a red flag law.

Shannon said the federal bill wouldn’t prevent “any of the gun violence that we’ve seen in this country.”

Candidates seek change in US immigration policy

On immigration, Shannon and Dahm said they would deny birthright citizenship to children born of parents in the country illegally. Shannon said illegal immigration was a matter of national security, not a workforce issue.

“We all know people who came here legally and they add to our culture, they add to our workforce, that’s a good thing,” Shannon said. “But what’s happening at the southern border, that’s a dereliction of duty.”

Pruitt said, “What we’ve seen on the southern border is an incursion — two and half million people coming across the border, violating the rule of law and sending a message to the rest of the country that it doesn’t matter. That has to change, we have to properly equip law enforcement to maintain the border but also take steps in Congress to provide certainty and answers going forward.”

Holland said loose border policies were adding to the overdose deaths from the drug fentanyl.

“To depoliticize (immigration), we need to start having a real conversation about the fact that it’s actually important that we know who’s coming into this country," Holland said. "A wall would work really well, we need to reinstate a lot of the other Trump policies that worked, like Remain in Mexico, and we need to defund the sanctuary cities.”

Dahm, who visited the southern border and spoke to law enforcement officials and victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, said, “We must secure the border, we must build the wall, we must put a hard stop on this illegal immigration, this invasion, and we have to have full reformation of our immigration policy at the federal level.”

Asked about compromise and working with members of the other party, Shannon said he had pushed through bipartisan legislation on taxes and workers' compensation reform while serving in the Legislature.

“We need statesmen in the United States Senate, and I will tell you I’m a great fan of the two-party system,” Shannon said. “I think it’s helped to make this country great. I fundamentally believe that just because you disagree with me, that does not make you evil. To be clear, it makes you wrong, but it does not make you evil.”

Holland said learned from Inhofe about working with members of the other party and cited the senator’s friendships with Democratic committee leaders. He said Inhofe endorsed him "because he knows I can strike that right balance of having a spine to block the bad things that the left wants to do but also figure out how we can move the ball forward for Oklahoma and advance real conservative victories that we need."

Dahm said he was the most conservative state senator in Oklahoma history, but that he was willing to work with anyone on protecting people's rights.

"There are some of you today who probably want a liberal Republican," he said. "That’s not me. If you want a liberal Republican, you have a lot of other options to choose from."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Minus Mullin, GOP Senate hopefuls talk issues at OKC Chamber meeting