JeKia Harrison and Aletia Timmons have filed to run in the June 10 Democratic primary election for House District 97, which was vacated by former Rep. Jason Lowe (D-OKC). Lowe resigned this month after being elected to the Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners in February.
No GOP candidates filed for the HD 97 primary, meaning the winner of the Democratic primary will win the seat.
House District 97 includes Forest Park, Jones, Lake Aluma, Midwest City, Spencer, and parts of Oklahoma City. Lowe has represented the district since 2016, before his election to the District 1 Oklahoma County Commissioner seat.
Harrison, 35, is a community advocate and owner of Pen 2 Paper Consulting, a political campaign consulting and management firm. She graduated from Millwood High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in Nashville, according to her website. She has also served as a child welfare specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. She is currently a legislative assistant in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Harrison has also worked on several campaigns, including former U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn’s unsuccessful reelection bid in 2020 and the 2021 Georgia U.S. Senate runoff. She is also the president of the Oklahoma Young Democrats and co-chapter lead for the Oklahoma Chapter of Moms Demand Action.
Timmons, 64, is a former Oklahoma County District Court judge, first elected in 2014. Before becoming a judge, Timmons founded Timmons and Associates, an OKC-based law firm open from 2003 to 2014, where she focused on civil rights and employment law, according to her website. She began her career as an attorney for General Motors legal services. Timmons is a graduate of John Marshall High School and earned her law degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Law. Timmons has also worked as an adjunct professor at Langston University’s OKC campus and is the founder of Jamming Hoopfest, a program that focuses on food insecurity in Northeast OKC. Timmons has received numerous awards during her career, including the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Diversity Award presented by the Oklahoma Bar Association and the Outstanding Trial Judge Award presented by the Oklahoma Association for Justice.
