Voters in eastern Oklahoma south of Tulsa will have the choice between Republican Bryan Logan, Democrat Nathan Brewer and independent Steve Sanford at the polls Tuesday to represent them in State Senate District 8.
The SD 8 general election on May 13 will mark the third time Logan has appeared on a ballot this year, but just the first time for Brewer and Sanford. Logan — a pastor and general contractor from Paden — emerged from an initial field of six to advance to an April 1 Republican runoff, during which he defeated David Nelson to clinch the GOP nomination for the open seat.
Neither Brewer nor Sanford — the Ward 1 member of the Henryetta City Council — competed in a primary, and eastern Oklahoma’s conservative nature offers them an up-hill climb to defeat Logan.
SD 8 is open because former Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Roger Thompson (R-Okemah) resigned last year after he was ousted as chairman of the powerful committee. Since then, tensions simmering between factions of Republicans in the Legislature’s upper chamber have left Logan in a position of potential power if he wins Tuesday.
Who is voting?
SD 8 encompasses all of Okfuskee, Okmulgee and McIntosh counties, as well as parts of Creek and Muskogee counties. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, with early voting Thursday and Friday at county election boards.
Asked about the split in the Senate Republican Caucus, Logan said he was aware of the dynamic but declined to align himself with anyone in particular. Senate Republicans voted in November to select Sen. Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) to be the chamber’s president pro tempore, or leader. Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant) — a member of the chamber’s more hardline conservative faction — finished second in a reported 20-19 vote. Lawmakers have until the final Friday in May to conclude regular session.
“I am going up there to represent my people,” Logan said. “Here’s the thing: Right now, Lonnie Paxton is the pro temp, and that’s my plans.”
Asked to elaborate on his “plans,” Logan said he was focused on next week’s election.
“My plan is to join the Senate right now,” Logan said.
Neither Paxton nor any other member of Senate Republican leadership endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary race for SD 8.
Asked about the dynamic, Brewer, who runs a parking lot maintenance business in Henryetta, said he has “a lot of bipartisan support.”
“I’ve got Republicans voting for me. I’ve got independents that are going to vote for me, and obviously, Democrats. So I have across the board bipartisan support because of the areas that I stand on,” Brewer said. “I really think I’ve got a very high chance. I can tell you this: I know I’m not going to come in last place. But at this point, I feel very confident that I’m going to win this one just because of the responses I’m getting from voters.”
Sanford, a truck driver and owner of Rustlers BBQ in Henryetta, also discussed the Senate dynamic through the lens of seeking to bridge a gap between ideologies.
“I’m middle of the road. I care about us. It’s people over politics. I think I can work with anybody and everybody. As far as caucusing — I’ve been on city council. I have a little bit of government experience,” Sanford said. “I would just stay independent and work with everybody to try to do better for my community because at the end of the day, if I get voted in, those are people I work for, and that will always ring true for me.”
SD 8 general election candidates motivated by experiences
Logan said he got into the race because of his experience serving on community boards.
“Two years ago, my wife asked me why I continued to sit on these boards,” Logan said. “I told her that I loved resourcing, networking, problem solving (on) those boards that I sit on.”
Logan said he had thought that he might like to run for office to continue using the skills he has developed, and when Thompson resigned, he and his wife decided he would run for the open seat.
“I don’t have an agenda. (…) I have not campaigned on one bill. I have not campaigned — I do not have a personal vendetta against anybody at the Capitol or anybody in my district or any agency,” Logan said. “I’m going to continue to work on the things that I campaigned on, and that’s conservative Republican values.”
Brewer said he decided to run because of a few specific issues centered around public and child safety. In 2023, Brewer’s daughter was killed, along with multiple other victims, by a man previously convicted of first-degree rape and who was due for a court date for a possession of child pornography charge. The massacre made national news.
“What got me into the race was my daughter’s death May 1 of ’23 by a sex offender,” Brewer said. “The laws here in Oklahoma are stupid. They’re not protecting the children. They’re not protecting our communities like they should be. So that’s what kind of got me into politics. That’s what got me into the race.”
Brewer said he has four bills prepared addressing the issue if he is able to join the Legislature, but he declined to provide details about them.
“I have to get elected first, and then they have to get to legal to make sure everything’s legal on them, but one’s over school safety, one’s over mental health, one’s over public safety and one’s over law enforcement and fire,” Brewer said.
Sanford said he entered politics after raising money to save a building from being torn down.
“What I learned was, if you want to make a difference in this town or any place, you’d put yourself in a spot where you can make a difference. So I ran for city council, and I’m about to be two years in my term, and this town is in a better position. The whole atmosphere is better,” Sanford said. “When this opportunity arose for Senate, I thought, ‘If I can help my little town, maybe I can help all of us.’ I feel like I’m the right person to do the job. I want to take care of as many people as I can and help, and my motives are honest and pure.”
Sanford said his first time in the State Capitol was when he entered to file his paperwork to run for SD 8 on Jan. 7.
Besides a fractured Senate Republican Caucus, candidates also discussed a slew of electricity and wind bills making their way through the Legislature.
Logan addressed a controversial proposal popular with many in eastern Oklahoma that would require wind mills to be set back a distance from dwellings and property lines. The proposal — remaining alive as Senate Bill 2 — failed when it came up for a vote in the House Tuesday, but it advanced upon reconsideration Wednesday with its title off, meaning it awaits further negotiation.
“I would be voting for those bills because of my district, because of how they feel about it, and don’t even throw the property rights thing at me because I’ll have a host of things to throw at you,” Logan said. “And say, ‘Can you do this, this, this, or this on your property?’ without somebody saying the answer is, ‘Well, no, I can’t.’ So do we have property rights? Absolutely. Is there things that jeopardize (those rights?) Go bury one of your loved ones on your property and see what the state says.”
Brewer took a different approach.
“They might have already addressed the issue before our election, and that’s kind of how I see that there,” Brewer said of wind farm setback proposals. “But also I see that it — we need to do a little bit more investigating on it, a little more research.”
Sanford said he did not know much about the issue.
“I don’t really like seeing [wind mills] scattered all over the countryside, but who am I to say to you you can’t?” Sanford said.
(Correction:Â This article was updated at 1:50 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, to correct a reference to the type of business Steve Sanford owns. NonDoc regrets the error.)
