SD 33: Four challenging ‘the hellhound of abortion’

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(Editor’s Note: Ahead of Oklahoma’s June 28 primary, our #HotRace miniseries continues with a review of candidates for Senate District 33 in Broken Arrow and Tulsa.)

Fancied around the conservative blogosphere as “the hellhound of abortion,” Oklahoma Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow) is defending his seat this year against four challengers: two Republicans and two Democrats.

But District 33 nearly wasn’t Dahm’s to defend, as he placed second in the 2012 Republican primary with 2,284 votes, 126 behind Christian-school-founder Tim Wright.

Wright had not won a majority, however, and Dahm ultimately prevailed in the runoff. He pulled five more votes than he had in the primary, while Wright got 500 fewer. That propelled Dahm, a former dean of students at a Romanian Bible college, into his first term of elected office.

Since, the senator has made headlines for filing controversial gun bills and an anti-abortion measure too extreme to withstand a veto from pro-life Gov. Mary Fallin.

Amid Dahm’s latest legislative bluster, a blogger in Oregon glowingly called Dahm “the hellhound of abortion” in a piece that was posted on numerous other sites.

So on Tuesday, packing a new firebrand mantra, a few national TV appearances and a fundraising lead (see below), the incumbent Dahm will stand his ground in his first re-election primary. He appears well positioned with more than 3,000 Facebook followers.

But owing to the controversial senator’s thin margin of victory in 2012, Dahm’s Senate District 33 challengers are worth examining.

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