(Update: On Dec. 9, Dillon Travis and Mike Waters advanced to the Jan. 13 Republican runoff for the HD 35 special election. The following article remains in its original form.)
Five Republican candidates are running to represent the rural hills west of Tulsa in a special primary election to succeed former Rep. Ty Burns (R-Morrison), who resigned earlier this year after pleading guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault. On Tuesday, Dec. 9, Republican voters will cast their ballots for Amber Roberts, Dillon Travis, Mike Waters, James Win or Kevin Wright, with the winner set to face Democrat Luke Kruse in a Feb. 10 general election.
House District 35 is centered on Pawnee County, but it also includes parts of Osage, Creek, Payne  and Noble counties. HD 35 represents communities like Cleveland, Hominy, Prue, Oilton, Lawrence Creek, Drumright, Glencoe, Morrison and Red Rock, as well as a square mile around Lakeside Golf Course on the north edge of Stillwater.
In addition to spanning five counties, HD 35 also covers parts of three federally recognized tribal nations: the Osage Nation, the Pawnee Nation and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians. Two Republican candidates — Waters and Wright — attended a United Indian Nations of Oklahoma candidate forum in Pawnee on Nov. 13 alongside Kruse, the Democratic nominee, where questions were heavily focused on tribal sovereignty issues.
If no Republican candidate receives a majority of the vote in the Dec. 9 primary, a special runoff election is scheduled for Jan. 13. Whoever wins the HD 35 special election would serve only the remainder of Burns’ vacated term through November, meaning they would have to re-file for office in April and potential defend the seat months later in the normal 2026 election cycle.
The following HD 35 Republican primary cheat sheet is based on publicly available information, including candidate websites, social media pages, forum appearances and interviews. The candidates are presented in alphabetical order.
Amber Roberts
Age:Â 43
Hometown: Hominy
Profession/background: Amber Roberts is a small business owner and a longtime volunteer for Republican causes, according to her campaign website. She served as an alternate elector in the 2024 electoral college.
Amber Roberts is the wife of former Rep. Sean “The Patriot” Roberts, who served in Legislature from 2010 to 2022 before being term limited and unsuccessfully running for labor commissioner. In 2018, Amber Roberts ran for Senate District 10 and advanced to the GOP runoff, where she lost to Sen. Bill Coleman (R-Ponca City). She served four years on the Hominy City Council, after winning a plurality of support in 2013.
Platform:Â Roberts describes herself as a conservative and a “strong supporter of President Donald J. Trump.” She described her campaign priorities in a Facebook post as “supporting small businesses, protecting parental rights in education, backing law enforcement, defending the Second Amendment and advancing pro-life policies.”
She also supports “cutting waste” in state government and lowering taxes.
Dillon Travis
Age: 33
Hometown:Â Maramec
Profession/background: Dillon Travis owns Southern Plains AG-CO, an agricultural supplies company, and runs a cattle ranch in Maramec. He is a sixth-generation Oklahoman and was born and raised in Pawnee County, according to his website.
Platform:Â Travis describes himself as a “Trump conservative” and a supporter of the “America First” agenda on his campaign website.
His website includes a variety of policy priorities, such as improving rural roads and bridges, protecting farmers’ property rights and supporting law enforcement. He also pledges to stop “woke agendas in the classroom,” stand up to “the radical left” and offer “no compromise” on the Second Amendment.
“Rural Oklahoma doesn’t need another politician — it needs a fighter who lives the same challenges we do. I’m running to protect our values, fix our roads, defend our schools and make sure our district is never forgotten in Oklahoma City,” Travis said in a press release announcing his candidacy. “I’ve worked this land, I’ve hauled feed down these roads, and I’ve built a business here. I know what it takes to keep rural Oklahoma strong — and I’ll take that fight to the Capitol.”
Travis has been active on his campaign Facebook, where he has posted about promoting farmers and ranchers and getting Oklahoma’s education system out of the basement of national rankings.
He is endorsed by the American Farmers and Ranchers PAC.
Mike Waters
Age:Â 54
Hometown: Pawnee
Profession/background:Â Mike Waters is a former Pawnee County sheriff who served in office from 2010 to 2020 as a Democrat. He lost his 2020 reelection campaign to the Republican nominee, Darrin Varnell. Prior to his election as sheriff, Waters worked for the agency for 14 years. At a candidate forum in Pawnee, Waters said he started his career in that city’s police department in 1993.
In response to criticism of his party switch, Waters cited the area’s historical Democrat lean and Trump’s own party switch prior to his election.
“Like a lot of folks in rural Oklahoma, I used to be registered as a Democrat because that is how families around here were raised for generations. But I have voted Republican for as long as I can remember because my values have always been conservative: faith, family, freedom, and law and order,” Waters wrote in a Facebook post. “President Trump (who also used to be a registered Democrat) built his winning coalition by welcoming conservatives who were not always registered Republicans. That is how we grow and how we win.”
Platform:Â Waters lists six campaign priorities on his campaign website: increasing public safety, supporting agriculture, advocacy for veterans, support for local and parental control in education, increasing senior services and protecting conservative values.
He also advocates funding mental health treatment outside of county jails.
“Mental illness and addiction should be treated in clinics and recovery centers, not in your county jail,” Waters said in a video posted to Facebook. “That’s not being soft on crime, that’s being smart on safety.”
At the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma forum, Waters expressed support for increasing cooperation between the state and tribal governments.
“I want to take just a minute to talk to you about something that means a lot to me: our tribal nations and partnerships that we have here in Oklahoma,” Waters said. “The Pawnee Nation, our native veterans, all our tribal nations are a vital part of Oklahoma’s past and our future.”
Waters has the endorsement of four of the five county sheriffs whose jurisdiction overlaps with HD 35: Payne County Sheriff Joe Harper, Noble County Sheriff Matt McGuire, Pawnee County Sheriff Shawn Price and Osage County Sheriff Bart Perrier.
Waters is also the great-nephew of former Rep. Don Johnson, who represented HD 35 from 1972 until his death in 1985 and who was the last Democrat elected to the district.
James Winn
Age:Â 43
Hometown:Â Mannford
Profession/background:Â James Winn is a graduate of Northeastern State University and started his career working on oil rigs in Oklahoma and Wyoming. After marrying and having four kids, he transitioned from working in the oil industry to farming and ranching. He currently operates a watermelon farm and raises chickens.
“I’ve actually sold my cows to run for office,” Winn said of his ranching in an interview.
Winn previously sought the GOP nomination for HD 35 in 2018, receiving only 27 percent support to Burns’ 73 percent. Last year, he ran for Senate District 21, receiving 9.6 percent support and finishing last in a three-way GOP primary ultimately won by Sen. Randy Grellner (R-Cushing).
Platform:Â During an interview with the conservative Rope Report, Winn criticized the Oklahoma Legislature for not paying enough attention to rural issues.
“Being a rural district, and from a rural community, to me, we have no representation in our Legislature that benefits rural communities,” Winn said. “We might have representation from certain individuals, but no legislation is ever getting passed to benefit rural communities. All the legislation that is getting passed is really benefitting your metropolises.”
Winn described himself as a “constitutionalist” and argued in favor of republicanism over democracy. He said he hopes to promote big families and expressed sentiment similar to the great replacement theory, which claims immigrants are replacing native-born Americans.
“We need to promote our own instead of going down this path of, ‘Well, we’re not having enough children, so let’s bring in illegals,'” Winn said.
Winn opposes lobbyists donating to political campaigns.
“I am the only candidate in this race that has really stood up and made that pledge to not accept lobbyist money,” Winn told the Rope Report. “That’s one of the major reasons I’m running for office. We keep thinking we’re going to get a great guy into office and then they get in office, start going on the golf excursions, the hunting trips, taking their money, and we see it over and over again. They end up doing the favors for the lobbyists and vote how the lobbyist tells them to vote and not how we the people tell them to vote.”
He also supports the Save Oklahoma Plan pushed by Rep. Jim Shaw (R-Chandler) and opposes the foreign ownership of land in the state, subsidies for renewable energy and automatic license plate readers.
Kevin Wright
Age:Â 58
Hometown:Â Jennings
Profession/background:Â In 2005, Kevin Wright joined the Jennings Town Council as a trustee, and he has served as mayor of Jennings since in 2012, according to an interview with his son. He moved to Jennings when he was seven years old after his father came to town to found a church. After starting his career in sales, he founded an apparel printing company, A Affordable Design, in Alden.
Platform: In the interview with his son posted to Facebook, Wright said he is running to address rural issues.
“Being a small-town mayor, you understand the funding crisis that these rural communities have out here. Listen, we don’t have the funds to do everything we want to do within our infrastructure, however, we know there is funds being distributed at the State Capitol that we need to go up there and get our fair share,” Wright said. “We want the same opportunities that those that live in urban communities (have). We don’t have to have the fanciest things out here in the rural communities, ’cause we make a choice to live out here, and we want to live out here, but we want some better infrastructure, we want better roads, we want better broadband, sidewalks for our kids to play on, and we want safe communities.”
On his website, Wright describes himself as a “Christian conservative” and emphasizes “faith,” “family,” and “freedom.”
Wright also advocates for ending the state’s income tax, cutting regulations and defending the Second Amendment, and he opposes foreign land ownership in Oklahoma.
At the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma forum, Wright expressed support for a better relationship between the state and tribal partners.
“Well, first of all you’ve got to respect their sovereignty and treat the tribal nations as partners and ensure agreements are voluntary, transparent and mutually beneficial,” Wright said. “Honor the culture and the heritage. It’s in Oklahoma’s DNA.”
