Lisa Standridge and Robert Keyes will compete in a Republican runoff election for the District 15 state Senate seat which covers a portion of west Norman and Moore on Aug. 27.
None of the six candidates who ran in the primary election in June received over 50% of the vote, leading the frontrunners, Standridge and Keyes, to go into a runoff election for the Republican nomination.
According to her campaign website, Standridge is a health care professional and graduate of the OU College of Pharmacy.
Standridge is the wife of incumbent Rob Standridge (R-Norman), who reached his term limit after serving 12 years as state senator. The couple has opened two pharmacies in the Oklahoma City area.
Standridge is conservative, pro-life and an advocate for the Second Amendment, according to her campaign website. She also seeks to decrease homelessness and illegal immigration, eliminate state income tax and increase funding for law enforcement.
Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila and former OU football coach Barry Switzer have endorsed Standridge.
Standridge did not return OU Daily’s requests for an interview for this story.
Keyes is the president and CEO of Associated Environmental Industries and is involved in the groundwater industry. According to his campaign website, he grew up below the poverty line and began his career working in an oil field before starting his business.
He also established the Morning Dove Foundation, a faith-based charity that prepares students for their careers.
Keyes seeks to develop Oklahoma’s workforce, curb illegal immigration and promote industry skills in schools. His campaign website states he is conservative and is against abortion.
In an email sent to the OU Daily, Keyes wrote one of his top policy priorities is spending reform.
“Oklahoma does not have a revenue problem – Oklahoma has a spending problem,” Keyes wrote in the email. “Fraud, waste and abuse are rampant across our state agencies.”
Keyes’ ideas about spending reform extend into education.
“All three of our kids graduated from OU so we have a deep connection to the campus,” Keyes wrote. “The best thing the legislature can do for students is to get more money into the classroom.”
On Aug. 1, the Cleveland County Republican Party hosted a heated debate between the two prospective nominees.
Standridge and Keyes discussed their beliefs and outlined their prospective plans for office. They also debated who was “more” conservative.
“Don’t ever say that you’re more conservative than me, you can’t spell it well enough to do that,” Keyes said.
Standridge said in the debate that she was the most conservative candidate. She repeatedly condemned Senate Republicans who do not vote conservative, called “Republicans In Name Only”, or RINOs.
“I would never, ever negotiate with a RINO, ever,” Standridge said.
Keyes said during the debate that negotiating with other, less conservative, senators is the only way to “move the needle.”
“If we don’t send an experienced negotiator to the Capitol, we might as well not even have a senator,” Keyes wrote in an email.
“When you say you don’t want to pick a side, you probably want to back that up because there are two sides up there,” Standridge said during the debate. “There’s a side that is RINO-infested and then there’s the side that are true conservatives.”
In the event of their opponent winning the runoff, both nominees pledged to endorse one another in the general election.
“We need to stand behind conservative people, regardless of whether they wear a skirt or a tie,” Keyes said during the debate.
The winner of this runoff election will run against the only Democratic nominee, former Ward 6 Norman City Councilmember Elizabeth Foreman in the Nov. 5 general election.
Oklahoma residents can visit the online voter portal to find their district and register to vote.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Ana Barboza and Ismael Lele. Andrew Paredes and Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
