Oklahoma's five Republican U.S. House members face GOP challengers in Tuesday's primary election, which also includes races for state House and Senate seats and some local elections.
The only primary race for the U.S. Senate seat is between two Libertarian Party candidates, since neither incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford nor Democratic challenger Mike Workman of Tulsa drew any primary opposition. Registered independents can vote this cycle in either Libertarian or Democratic primaries.
Democrats are voting in congressional primary elections in the 2nd District in eastern Oklahoma, the 4th District in central and south-central Oklahoma, and the 5th District in the Oklahoma City area.
The highlights of Tuesday's Oklahoma primary:
INCUMBENTS LOOKING OVER THEIR SHOULDERS?
A Republican primary upset in 2012 of five-term incumbent U.S. Rep. John Sullivan by Jim Bridenstine served as a warning to all Oklahoma incumbents to take primary challengers seriously. Now Bridenstine himself is facing a Republican challenger, along with U.S. Reps. Tom Cole, Frank Lucas, Markwayne Mullin and Steve Russell. Four of the five Republican incumbents have huge fundraising advantages over their opponents, although Bridenstine challenger Tom Atkinson of Tulsa kept the money edge competitive by loaning his campaign $400,000.
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FROM CLASSROOM TO CAPITOL
This year's primary election will be the first test for dozens of teachers, administrators and other candidates with ties to public education who decided to challenge incumbents they perceived as not sufficiently supportive of public schools. While many of these political newcomers won't face election until November, there are some who are challenging incumbents or face crowded primary fields in races for open seats.
Education weighed heavily on the mind of Democrat Cheryl Cohenour, 59, when she cast her ballot Tuesday morning in Tulsa.
"We need to vote enough of (the educators in) to do something for teachers and teacher pay," Cohenour said.
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TERM LIMITS TAKE A TOLL
There are 57 primary elections in the House - 21 among Democrats and 36 for Republicans. In the Senate, there are seven Democratic primaries and 20 for Republicans, many of those for the 10 seats open because of term limits.
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AMAZING RACES
In central Oklahoma, two cowboy brothers who partnered up on the reality television show "The Amazing Race" are running for office, one as a Republican for state Senate and one as a Democrat for the state House. Jet McCoy is seeking the GOP nomination in a three-way race for the open Senate District 13 seat in the Ada area. His brother Cord McCoy is seeking to oust incumbent Rep. Donnie Condit in the Democratic primary for House District 18.
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POLLS OPEN
Polling locations across Oklahoma are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Early in-person voting ended Saturday. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes cast in the primary, a runoff primary election for the top two vote getters is set for Aug. 23. The general election is Nov. 8.
