Emerging from a 14-candidate Republican primary, former Sen. Josh Brecheen (R-Coalgate) and current Rep. Avery Frix (R-Muskogee) will face each other in a 2nd Congressional District runoff election Aug. 23.
Frix garnered 14.74 percent of the vote, and Brecheen received 13.75 percent of the 76,869 total votes cast after all 546 precincts reported. Because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held for the open 2nd Congressional District seat.
All results posted by the Oklahoma State Election Board online are unofficial until they are certified by the board.
The two candidates ran in a field of 14 Republican candidates to fill the seat which is being vacated by Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK2). Mullin did not seek reelection because he is running for U.S. Senate.
“I’m so humbled to finish first in this race. Markwayne Mullin leaves big shoes to fill, but I am ready to step up and do the job of putting America First,” Frix said in a statement sent to NonDoc. “As your congressman, I will fight tirelessly to fight Biden’s inflation, lower gas prices by making America energy independent again, finish Trump’s border wall, and bring Oklahoma values to Washington.”
Frix is from Muskogee and has represented Oklahoma House District 13 since 2016. At 28 years old, he was the youngest candidate in the CD 2 race. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. On his website, he says that he has also worked in his family business, Frix construction, and he owns Oxford Productions, a tourism and facility management company. Frix is also a citizen of the Choctaw Nation.
Brecheen, 42, is from Coalgate. He represented State Senate District 6 from 2010 to 2018 and previously worked for former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn. During his time in the Legislature, he gained notoriety for repeatedly pushing bills that would allow educators to teach alternative theories to controversial science topics.
The winner of the 2nd Congressional District runoff will face Democrat Naomi Andrews and Independent “Bulldog” Ben Robinson, who served in the State Senate decades ago as a Democrat.
With so many candidates in the race for a district that comprises most of eastern Oklahoma, the two runoff candidates ended up being from either side of I-40.
Johnny Teehee, the current chief of police in Muskogee, finished third with 12.95 percent of the vote, or 617 votes behind Brecheen. John Bennett, a former chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party and former representative for House District 2, finished fourth with 11.32 percent, or 1,871 votes behind Brecheen.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling from July 2020 functionally affirmed six Indian Country reservations in eastern Oklahoma, the territory of the 2nd Congressional District.
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